
.(S^^ToMl^ 



Clasi 
Hook 



Pkr:si:NTr:i) by 



NATURAL HISTORY 



aUADRUPEDS 



ILLUSTRATED WITH 

NUMEROUS ENGKAVINGS* 



NEW-YORK; 

HARPER .% BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF-STREET 

184 0. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, by 

Harper & Brothers, 

In the ClerK's Office of the Southern District of New-York. 



MFss Atfee H. Bttshee 
Jan. 6,1932 



MAR 8 19(4 




A 



lENT. 



There are few subjects more interesting than 
the natural history of quadrupeds. Although sep- 
arated immeasurably from man, as possessing 
none of the higher attributes of his nature, and as 
being designed for a totally distinct and infinitely 
inferior end, they claim, by the perfection of their 
corporeal organization, to be classed physically in 
the next grade below him in the scale of animated 
nature. Among the most consummate and ad- 
mirable, therefore, of the terrestrial works of the 
great Creator, and signally manifesting his won- 
der-working skill, his unspeakable wisdom, power, 
and goodness, the study of their organization, and 
character, and habits, cannot be otherwise than 
highly entertaining and instructive. 

The volume here offered to the public will be 
found to contain a very full account of many of 
the most interesting of this class of animals, and 
is richly embellished with cuts exhibiting their 
form, manners, &;c. The work was first published 



IV ADVERTISEMENT. 

in the series of the British Society for the Dif- 
fusion of Useful Knowledge, and has been care- 
fully revised, and such portions as were chiefly 
of local interest have been excluded from the 
present edition. 

H- & B. 

New- York, October y 1839. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Introduction Page 9 

CHAPTER n. 

The Uses of Menageries 22 

Animals of different Natures in one Cage • . 26 

Menagerie of the Tower 30 

Menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes • • .31 

CHAPTER m. 

The Dog. — Esquimaux Dog . ... • .36 

Newfoundland Dog 50 

Dogs of Kamtschatka . -. . • • .55 
Spanish Mastiffs, from Cuba . . . . • 69 

American Wild Dogs 60 

Dogs of Great St. Bernard 65 

Varieties of Dog 68 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Wolf . . . ; 83 

Black Wolf 96 

Clouded Wolf ib. 

American Wolves ....... 97 

The Jackal 103 

The Fox.— The Cross Fox 106 

CHAPTER V. 

The Hyjena 109 

Striped Hyaena ib. 

Spotted Hyaena 112 

CHAPTER VL 

The Lion 125 

A3 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VU. 

The Tiger Page 160 

Lion-tiger Cubs 368 

The Leopard 170 

The Puma ]75 

The Domestic Cat 178 

CHAPTER Vm. 
The Camel 189 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Camel (continued) . 225 

CHAPTER X. 
The Llama 254 

CHAPTER XL 
The Giraffe 263 

CHAPTER XU. 

Antelopes 276 

The Gazelle 278 

The Sprmgbok 281 

The Gnu 286 

The Hartebeest . . . . . . .289 

The Elk 290 

The Chamois 291 

CHAPTER XIIL 

Deer 299 

The Red Deer 301 

The Roe ib. 

The Fallow Deer . ib. 

CHAPTER XIY. 
The Reindeer 307 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



No. Page 

1. Group of Animals .27 

2. Esquimaux Dog -- = -----36 

3. Esquimaux Dogs and Sledge ----- 43 

4. Man with Dog and Cart 49 

5. Spanish Mastiffs 59 

6. Dog of St. Bernard .---.-. 67 

7. Sick Tiger and Spaniel-bitch 80 

8. Wolf , . - . . 83 

9. Clouded Wolf 06 

10. Jackal 103 

11. Cross Fox .106 

12. Striped Hyaena 109 

13. Spotted Hyaena 113 

14. Lion .125 

15. Lion's Paw -- 155 

16. Grasshopper's Foot 156 

17. Portion of Lion's Tongue 158 

18. Tiger 160 

19. Lion-tiger Cubs 169 

20. Leopard 170 

21. Leopard-catching by a Mirror - - - - - 174 

22. Puma 175 

23. Arabian Camel - 189 

24. Camels fighting 202 

25. Camel's Foot 213 

26. Halt of Camels 218 

27. Camels Watering 222 

28. Llama 255 

29. Giraffe 264 

30. Giraffe's Tongue 273 

31. Gazelle 279 



Viri ILLUSTRATIONS. 

No. Page 

32. Antelope 280 

33. Gnu 28G 

34. Gnu's Head 289 

35. Chamois 292 

36. Red Deer - - 299 

37. Reindeer 307 

38. Sledge 308 

39. (Estrus Tarandi - - 310 

40. Reindeer's Foot - - - . , - - 315 

41. Lapland Family - - - - . - - 324 



aUADRUPEDS. 

CHAPTER L 

INTRODUCTION. 

Natural History has been called the science of 
observation, as distinguished from other sciences 
which are founded upon calculation or experiment. 
From this peculiarity, Natural History is, in many 
respects, the most easily pursued, and the most 
agreeable in the pursuit, of all the various branches 
of human inquiry and study. Its limits as a science 
are almost boundless ; for scientific naturalists are 
daily adding some new or uncommon specimen to 
our previous collections of animal, vegetable, or 
mineral nature. At the same time, every detached 
object of this science, every quadruped, bird, rep- 
tile, fish, worm, or insect ; every flower, every piece 
of metal, crystal, or stone, not only excites greater 
interest when we have acquired, by careful investi- 
gation, a knowledge of its properties, but leads the 
mind forward to new subjects of curiosity. As an 
observer of nature, every man has it in his power 
to become a naturalist, in a greater or less degree. 

Although every one possesses this power, and has 
thus abundant opportunities of adding largely to his 
stock of intellectual enjoyment, there are many who 
pass through Ufe without the slightest regard to 
those wonders and beauties of the creation by which 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

they are surrounded. It is the distinction between 
the savage and the civilized man, that the one has 
no respect for the qualities of the living beings or 
inanimate substances among w^hich he is placed, ex- 
cept as they minister to his physical Vi^ants ; while 
the other, without neglecting their subservience to 
his necessities or comforts, views them likewise 
with reference to all the conditions of their exist- 
tence — considering each variety of the whole world 
of Nature, whether separately or in groups, wheth- 
er individually perfect or in parts, as affording the 
most striking illustrations of the extraordinary adap- 
tation of every existing thing to the purposes for 
which it was created — the most complete proofs of 
the wisdom and goodness of the Creator. This 
distinction between the savage and the civilized man 
has been produced by habit and education. The 
savage has constantly to seek the precarious means 
of maintaining life ; for he has not learned those 
useful arts, and those combinations of individual 
power, by which a supply of food and raiment is 
systematically provided for the necessities of soci- 
ety. Men advanced in civilization have the full 
advantages, first, of the division of labour, by which 
those whom habit has rendered expert are enabled 
to supply our necessary wants, for instance, of clo- 
thing ; and, secondly, of mechanical power, by which 
operations are rendered short and easy, which would 
otherwise be tedious and laborious. It is from these 
circumstances that we have all some leisure to ac- 
quire knowledge ; while the general stock of in- 
formation which is possessed by society is insensibly 
diffused among all its members, and reaches even 
the minds of the most uncultivated. 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

It is thus the positive duty of all to acquire knowl- 
edge, by observation, by reflection, by reading,' by 
listening to the informed ; for the greater the por* 
tion of the general stock of knowledge which each 
individual is enabled to acquire, the more is his own 
well-being promoted, and the more is society ben- 
efited. Knowledge is not limited in its quantity, 
and is not, in our times, of necessity confined to 
particular classes. Every one, however humble, 
may appropriate to himself some of its most valu- 
able treasures ; for its stores are always large 
enough for the supply of every demand, and the 
more they are drawn upon, the more inexhaust- 
ible appears to be the fund from which they are de- 
rived. 

The first step in the successful communication 
of any branch of knowledge is to awaken the atten- 
tion of the mind to the object or assemblage of ob- 
jects to which that branch of knowledge applies. 
Without a habit of attention to the things around 
them, men walk about in the world with their eyes 
half shut ; for they are insensible to all but the com- 
monest external appearances, and have no percep- 
tion of the minuter peculiarities which distinguish 
one class of objects from another, of the beauties of 
their structure, or of the harmonies of their arrange- 
ment. Take an example : engaged as we are in 
the ordinary pursuits of life, in our business and in 
our pleasures, it is but rarely that we bestow atten- 
tion upon those most stupendous works of a ruling 
Providence : the sun, the planets, the myriads, of 
stars, of which it might be thought that the bare 
contemplation would awaken in us a feeling of un- 
bounded wonder and admiration. It is only when 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

some singular appearance of those vast and glorious 
bodies presents itself — when we behold an eclipse 
or a comet — that the greater number of us have 
our attention excited to the objects with which the 
scien^-e of Astronomy is conversant. It is at such 
moments that the accidental awakening of our at- 
tention should be seized upon by us, to acquire the 
particular knowledge relating to the circumstance 
by which the spirit of inquiry was roused ; for we 
may reasonably entertain a conviction, that if we 
refer to some intelligent instructer, or seek for an 
explanation in some proper book, we shall not only 
satisfy ourselves upon the point in doubt, but be led 
forward to feel an interest in many other details, 
which would lay the foundation of a scientific knowl- 
edge of the laws which govern the heavenly bodies. 
This would be to acquire the hahit of bestowing 
attention upon a subject which we had previously 
disregarded ; and we should find this habit a source 
of infinite amusement and instruction, not confined, 
as we might have thought, to those who sui'vey the 
heavens from splendid observatories, and with the 
help of the most perfect glasses, but equally capa- 
ble of affording delight, and being of use to the way- 
faring man who plods onward to his home, and to the 
labourer who rises to his work before the morning- 
star has disappeared. There will be delight wher- 
ever there is this habit of observation. But the 
habit will not come if we do not cultivate the spirit 
of inquiry. We have heard a story of a pedagogue 
in a small village, who, having joined a crowd anx- 
iously engaged in watching an eclipse of the sun, 
and having been asked, in deference to his superior 
learning, what was the cause of this extraordinary 



INTRODUCTION* 18 

appearance, replied, " Oh ! it's only a'phenomenon." 
If, when we behold anything extraordinary in na- 
ture, we check our instinctive curiosity by saying 
to ourselves, " It's only a pheaomenon," we shall be 
not one step nearer any rational knowledge of that 
appearance than if we had never observed it. We 
must inquire into the causes of the phenomenon, 
which term, phenomenon, properly means an appear- 
ance, anything made manifest to us in any way ; 
and then we shall be led on to the knowledge of 
more phenomena, till by degrees we obtain a con- 
nected and general insight into the entire subject to 
which our attention was accidently directed. 
! It is amazing how much quickness the habit of 
observation will impart to the whole intellect, and 
how it will give it an aptitude for understanding and 
enjoying the thing observed. There is nothing, for 
instance, so common as to find men wanting in a 
perception of picturesque beauty ; of that feeling 
which enables some to take great delight in a land- 
scape, not only for its extent or the grandeur of 
its parts, but for that harmonious arrangement 
which is necessary to the effect of a picture, or for 
some accidental circumstances of light and shadow, 
or of colour, which render the prospect more than 
usually attractive. Now this is strictly an acqui- 
red faculty, and one which is produced by the prac- 
tice of looking at nature or at the monuments of 
art, with this previous adaptation of the vision to 
picturesque objects ; and a person who enjoys the 
faculty (we say enjoy, for it is a source of real 
pleasure), is svAd to possess a " painter's eye." It 
is precisely in the same way that a naturalist, by 
constantly observing the peculiarities of animal 
B 



14 mTRODUCTIONj 

life, acquires the readiest perception of the differ- 
ences in the structure and habits of the great va- 
riety of living beings ; and he perceives in each 
of them qualities which a less practised observer 
would entirely overlook. Through this habit of 
observation, the science of Zoology^ which compre- 
hends all that relates to the description and classi- 
fication of animals, has been gradually established. 
By diligent observation, the peculiar structure of 
vast numbers of individual animals has been as- 
certained ; their habits have been accurately de- 
scribed ; and many ancient errors, which arose 
from hasty examination, have been exploded. 
This greater accuracy of description has produced 
a proportionate accuracy of classification ; and 
though no system which attempts to arrange every 
variety of individual animals according to generic 
distinctions can be perfect, because exceptions to 
the rule are constantly occurring, yet an approach 
to perfection has been made through a more com- 
plete understanding of the organization of each 
species. Thus, in the more recent scientific works 
on Zoology, the accidental circumstances of size, 
or colour, or locality, or any identity in unimpor- 
tant habits, have ceased to be guides in the classi- 
fication of animals ; but the essential peculiarities of 
their formation, which chiefly determine their hab- 
its, have alone been regarded. We mention this 
to point out that the actual observations of succes- 
sive naturalists, leading to the accumulation of a 
great body of facts, have principally contributed to 
the advance of Zoology as a science in modern 
times ; for the science being wholly founded upon 
observation, and not upon previous calculations, 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

or any series of experiments, the greater our col- 
lection of facts, the nearer have we approached 
to systematic perfection. 

To enable an observer to make any valuable ad- 
ditions to this store of zoological knowledge, it is 
not necessary that he should be a profound anato- 
mist, or skilful in languages, or acquainted with 
all the various systems of classification which have 
entered, perhaps too largely, into the science of 
Zoology in all ages. Some of the most valuable 
materials for our knowledge of animals have been 
contributed by unscientific travellers, who have 
been content accurately to describe what they saw 
and to collect the minutest particulars of the struc 
ture, and, more especially, of the habits of the rare 
species of quadrupeds, or birds, or reptiles, or fish- 
es, which they had opportunities of seeing in their 
natural state. But it is not even necessary that a 
lover of nature should be a traveller, or detail the 
peculiarities of those creatures only with which we 
are not familiar to make very important additions to 
Zoology. One of the most instructive and amusing 
books in our language, " The Natural History of 
Selborne," was written by the Rev. Gilbert White, 
who for forty years scarcely stirred from the se- 
clusion of his native village, employing his time, 
most innocently and happily for himself, and most 
instructively for the world, in the observation and 
description of the domestic animals, the birds, and 
the insects by which he was surrounded. He does 
not raise our wonder by stories of the crafty tiger 
or the sagacious elephant ; but he notes down the 
movements of " the old family tortoise ; is not in- 
different to the reason why wagtails run round 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

COWS when feeding in nnoist pastures ;" and watch. 
es the congregating and disappearance of swallows 
with an industry which could alone determine the 
long-disputed question of their migration, Mr, 
White derived great pleasure from these pursuits, 
because they opened to his mind new fields of in- 
quiry, and led him to perceive that what appears ac 
cidental in the habits of the animal world, is the re- 
sult of some unerring instinct, or some singular ex- 
ercise of the perceptive powers, affording the most 
striking objects of contemplation to a philosophic 
mind. It is in this way that every man may be- 
come a naturalist; and the great object which we 
propose to ourselves in the collection of the most 
interesting facts relating to animals in general, and 
in this volume of those which appertain to Quad. 
rupeds in particular, will be to excite such a habit 
of observation in our readers, that they may accus- 
tom themselves to watch the commonest appear- 
ances of animal life ; and thus derive, from every 
inquiry into which their observations may lead 
them, a more intimate conviction of the perfection 
of that Wisdom, by which the functions of the 
humblest being in the scale of existence are pre- 
scribed by an undeviating law. 

We are not about to write a systematic work 
on Zoology, which shall comprise every specimen 
of the Animal Kingdom; but, with especial refer- 
ence to the plan of diffusing Entertaining and Use- 
ful Knowledge, we shall rather attempt to lead the 
reader to a gradual acquaintance with the science, 
by instructing him in the peculiarities of individual 
animals, than to make these peculiarities subordi- 
nate to classification. We apprehend that, in 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

adopting this course, we pursue a natural and in- 
teresting mode of communicating a popular knowl- 
edge of the subject. It is frequently better to lead 
men from the example to the principle, than from 
the abstract principle to the example. This is the 
mode in which a practical knowledge is best at- 
tained in all things. 

There are, however, a few of the great princi- 
ples of Zoology, upon which the systems of classi- 
fication now in most esteem are founded, which 
we may properly explain, in as brief and simple a 
manner as possible, before we proceed to individu- 
al descriptions. 

The Animal Kingdom (scientifically called king^ 
dom, to distinguish it as a portion of the world o^ 
nature in general) is divided into vertebrated ana 
invertehrated animals. The term vertebrated is 
derived from vertehrce, the Latin name for the 
bones of the spine. 

Vertebrated animals are, therefore, those which 
possess a spine, or bony covering of the spinal 
marrow, on the anterior part of which the cranium 
or covering of the brain rests. To the sides of the 
vertebrae are attached ribs, which form the frame- 
work of the body. Animals of this division have 
all red blood ; a muscular heart ; a mouth with a 
transverse opening, and of which the jaws move in 
the same plane ; and distinct organs of vision, 
smell, hearing, and taste, all situated in cavities of 
the head. They have never more than four limbs, 
The division comprises Mammalia, Birds, Reptiles, 
and Fishes. The word Mammalia (having teats) ap- 
plies to all animals which suckle their young, and is 
the proper scientific term for those which are popu- 
B2 



.*i 



18 INTRODUCTION, 

larly called Quadrupeds; for the latter term is an 
incorrect one when applied exclusively to vivipa- 
rous animals (producing their young in a living 
state) with four legs, as many of the Reptiles have 
also four legs. Whenever, therefore, we popularly 
use the term Quadrupeds, speaking generally of the 
class which we are at present about to describe, 
we mean Mammiferous Quadrupeds, 

The Invertebrated animals are those which have 
no vertebrae ; of all these the blood is white. They 
are scientifically divided into Molluscous animals, 
in which the muscles are attached to the skin, with 
or without the protection of a shell, such as snails 
and slugs ; Articulated animals, in which the cover- 
ing of the body is divided into rings or segments, 
to the interior of which the muscles are attached, 
comprehending all insects and worms ; and Radia- 
ted animals, in which the organs of motion or sensa- 
tion radiate from a common centre, such as starfish. 

Each of the above four classes of Vertebrated 
animals have peculiarities of organization, by which 
they are fitted for the respective states in which 
they exist. The various nature of their movements 
is always proportioned to the quantity of respiration 
distinguishing each class. They thus either walk 
or run upon the earth, or fly through the air, or 
creep upon the ground, or swim in the water, as 
their quantity of respiration is moderate as in quad- 
rupeds, or great as in birds, or feeble as in reptiles, 
or small, but modified by peculiar arrangements, 
as in fishes. Quadrupeds, as we before said, suckle 
their young, and are viviparous. The whale, and 
several other species, which are popularly regarded 
as fishes, belong to the class Mammalia, on account 



mTRODtJCTION. 19 

of the great characteristic of suckling their young. 
Birds, Reptiles, and Fishes, being oviparous, or 
laying eggs, leave their young to other nourishment 
than that of their own bodies. 

The peculiar organization of Quadrupeds will 
be described, as occasion ofPars, in our notice of 
the individual specimens. The Orders into which 
they are now more generally divided are determin- 
ed, first, by the organ of touch, which regulates the 
ability of the animal to seize upon any object, and 
upon which its dexterity mainly depends ; and, sec- 
ondly, by those of mastication, which prescribe the 
nature of the food proper to each species, Lin- 
nasus, whose authority as a writer on Natural His- 
tory was for a long time considered unquestionable, 
divided the orders of quadrupeds solely according 
to the peculiarities of their teeth ; but this system, 
although natural to a certain extent, has been con- 
sidered as producing great anomalies and unnatural 
combinations. The systems of Cuvier, Blumen- 
bach, and other distinguished naturalists of our own 
day, are founded upon a consideration of the pe- 
culiarities both of the teeth and of the organs of 
touch. These systems, therefore, being formed with 
especial reference to the two great distinctions which 
determine the most important habits of the animal 
are called "natural systems." Without offering ai 
opinion upon the relative merits of the more mod 
ern systems of classification, we subjoin for the 
present a general view of the principles which have 
guided the zoologists of the best authority. 

The class of Quadrupeds admits of t. iJivision 
into two tribes : 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

I. Those whose extremities are divided into 
fingers or toes, scientifically called UnguicU' 
lata, from the Latin word for nail. 

II. Those whose extremities are hoofed, 
scientifically called Ungulata, from the Latin 
word for hoof. 

L The extremities of the first tribe are armed 
with claws or nails, which give them a capability 
of grasping objects, of climbing, of burrowing. 
The animals thus distinguished are susceptible of 
great variations in their modes of subsistence ; 
which variations are partly determined by different 
modifications of the power of touch, and partly by 
differences in the form of the cheek-teeth. 

Some have extremities formed for grasping, hav- 
ing the faculty of opposing a thumb to the other 
fingers, which faculty resides in, or is communicated 
by, that portion of animal structure which is prop- 
erly called a hand. Man possesses this faculty in 
the highest perfection ; but monkeys and bats are 
distinguished by having all their extremities capable 
of this power ; and they are thus called Quadruma- 
na, or four-handed. 

The remaining orders of the first tribe have no 
thumb capable of free motion ; and they are classed 
according to the form of their cheek-teeth, which 
determines their choice of food. 

The Quadrumana and the Carnwora (eaters of 
flesh) have molar or grinding-teeth (which we 
call cheek-teeth), canine-teeth, and cutting-teeth. 
Those which have the cheek-teeth feed partly or 
wholly on flesh, and these teeth are adapted for 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

cutting that substance ; while the jaws are fitted to- 
gether so as to move in the manner of a pair of 
scissors, and are incapable of any other motion than 
that of opening and closing again in a vertical di. 
rection. Some of these carnivorous animals, as well 
as other orders of the fingered quadrupeds, walk on 
the soles of the feet, as bears, and are called Plan* 
iigrada ; some on the extremities of the feet, as 
cats, and are called Digitigrada ; and some are 
web-footed, as seals, and are called Palmata. The 
remaining animals of the first tribe want the ca- 
nine-teeth, and have cutting-teeth in the front of the 
mouth, as rats and rabbits. They are called EO' 
dentia by Cuvier, which signifies gnawing; and 
Glires by Linnaeus. Cuvier makes another division, 
called Edentata^ which are defective in the incisive 
teeth, and of which some want the canine-teeth, and 
Bome are even destitute of teeth altogether. 

Among the Unguiculata, or fingered Quadrupeds, 
there are very few which are used by man as food. 
Many of them are noxious or ferocious. The dog 
and the cat are the only species of the carnivorous 
orders which have been rendered domestic, al- 
though many have their natural instincts subdued 
or restrained by their contact with mankind. 

II. The extremities of the Ungulata {Hoofed 
tribe) are exclusively employed to support and move 
the body. These animals do not possess the power 
of grasping objects, of climbing, or burrowing. 
They are all Herbivorous, or feeding on vegetables. 
Their teeth are fitted for the mastication of grain 
or roots, by having a flattish round upper surface ; 
and their jaws possess the capacity of moving in 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

the same plane. Their teeth are also of unequal 
hardness, so that they have the power of crushing, 
like the unequal surfaces of a millstone. Cuvier 
divides the hoofed animals into, 1, Fachydermata, 
or thick-skinned, among which are the horse and 
the elephant ; and, 2, Ruminantia, or those which 
ruminate or chew the cud, such as cows and sheep. 
Among this tribe, man, whether in a rude or civil- 
ized state, principally and almost exclusively finds 
his food from wild or from domesticated animals. 
This tribe also furnishes him with the most valuable 
assistance in agriculture, in the chase, and in the 
carriage of com.modities. 

In giving this very brief, and, therefore, imperfect 
sketch of the leading principles of classification, 
we have only thrown out a few hints for such of 
our readers as may desire, in the outset, to view 
the subject of Zoology as a science. 



CHAPTER II. 

ON MENAGERIES. 

The literal meaning of the word Menagerie 
points out one of the principal objects of a collection 
of various living animals. Menagerie is derived 
from the French word manager, from which we de. 
rive our English verb to manage. The name Me- 
nagerie was originally applied to a place of domes* 



MENAGERIES. 23 

tic animals, with reference to their nurture and 
training : it now means any collection of animals. 
It may be implied, therefore, that the animals in a 
Menagerie are not placed there merely for safe 
confinement, but that, by care and kindness, their 
noxious or ferocious propensities may there be re- 
strained or subdued, and by constant discipUne their 
habits may there be rendered useful, or at least in- 
offensive to man. Daubenton and other distin- 
guished naturalists have believed that the ferocity 
of many of the carnivorous animals may be entire- 
ly conquered in the course of time ; that they only 
flee from man through fear, and attack and devour 
other animals through the pressing calls of hunger ; 
and that the association with human beings, and 
an abundant supply of food, would render even the 
lion, the tiger, and the wolf as manageable as our 
domestic animals. In support of this theory, it 
may be observed, that although the tiger and the 
domestic cat have many properties in common, 
the conquest of the latter species is now complete ; 
and, farthef, that some of the most ferocious ani- 
mals, which have been bred in a state of confine- 
ment, or taken exceedingly young, have become 
perfectly tractable and harmless, with those who 
have rightly understood their natures. The acci- 
dents which have sometimes occurred to the at- 
tendants of wild beasts, and which are attributed 
to the treachery of their dispositions, have gener- 
ally proceeded from an ignorance of their habits. 
The lion, for instance, is not an animal of acute 
hearing, and he is therefore awakened with diffi- 
culty, particularly after feeding. If he is suddenly 
aroused, he instantly loses all presence of mind, 



24 NATURAL HISTORY. 

and flies off in the direction in which he happens 
to be lying. A few years ago, one of the keepers 
at Exeter Change was killed through his ignorance 
of this peculiarity, which is well known to the 
Bushmen of Africa.* The keeper, going into the 
den of a lion, and suddenly awakening him, the 
animal, seeing no mode of escape, killed the man 
under the influence of his natural terror. This 
unfortunate circumstance did not proceed from 
any unconquerable ferocity in the lion ; for, in gen- 
eral, he was obedient, and even aflfectionate. The 
habits of his species were not thoroughly under- 
stood by those around him ; if it had been other- 
wise, the keeper would not have placed himself in 
a position where the discipline by which the lion 
had been rendered grateful would be useless, from 
the stronger force of a natural propensity. 

But if it be too much to hope that the ferocious 
animals may be subdued to our uses through the 
education which well-conducted Menageries would 
afford, it cannot be doubted that such establish- 
ments offer most interesting opportunities for ob- 
serving the peculiarities of a great variety of crea- 
tures, whose instincts are calculated to excite a ra- 
tional curiosity, and to fill the mind with that pure 
and delightful knowledge which is to be acquired 
in every department of the study of nature. The 
commonest animals offer to the attentive observer 
objects of the deepest interest. When Montaigne, 
playing w' ith his cat, says in a quaint way, " who 
knows whether puss is not more diverted with me 
than I am with puss," his mind wanders into those 
speculations with regard to the delicate lines which 
divide instinct from reason, which must naturally 
* See p. 139. 



MENAGERIES. «55 

arise to every one who attentively contemplates 
the dispositions of the inferior parts of the living 
creation. To those who philosophize or to those 
who do not, the instinct and intelligence of animals 
are always interesting ; and to a feeling mind they 
are doubly so. The poet Cowper, when he sat for 
hours in his study watching the gambols of his 
three tame hares, forgot that gloom which consti- 
tutionally preyed upon him, in his sympathy with 
the innocent happiness of the poor beings whom he 
had taught, first not to fear him, and afterward to 
love him. These three hares, and his spaniel and 
cat, formed Cowper's Menagerie, and it afforded 
him both delight and instruction. 

All associations between animals of opposite na- 
tures are exceedingly interesting ; and those who 
train animals for public exhibition know how at- 
tractive are such displays of the power of discipline 
over the strength of instinct. These extraordina- 
ry arrangements are sometimes the effect of acci- 
dent, and sometimes of the greater force of one in- 
stinct over the lesser force of another. A rat- 
catcher having caught a brood of young rats alive, 
gave them to his cat, who had just had her kittens 
taken from her to be drowned. A few days after- 
ward, he was surprised to find the rats in the place 
of the drowned kittens, being suckled by their nat- 
ural enemy. The cat had a hatred to rats, but 
she spared these young rats to afford her the re- 
lief which she required as a mother. The rat- 
catcher exhibited the cat and her nurslings to con- 
siderable advantage.* A somewhat similar exhi- 
bition exists at present. There is a little Mena- 
♦ Brod«rip. 

c 



26 NATURAL HISTORY. 

gerie in London, where such odd associations may 
be witnessed upon a more extensive scale, and 
more systematically conducted than in any other 
collection of animals with which we are acquainted. 
Upon the Surry side of Waterloo Bridge, or some- 
times, though not so often, on the same side of 
Southwark Bridge, may be daily seen a cage about 
five feet square, containing the quadrupeds and 
birds which are represented in the annexed print. 
The keeper of this collection states that he has 
employed seventeen years in this business of train- 
ing creatures of opposite natures to live together 
in content and affection. And those years have 
not been unprofitably employed ! It is not too 
much to believe, that many a person who has giv- 
en his halfpenny to look upon this show, may 
have had his mind awakened to the extraordinary 
effects of habit and of gentle discipline, when he 
has thus seen the cat, the rat, the mouse, the hawk, 
the rabbit, the guinea-pig, the owl, the pigeon, the 
starling, and the sparrow, each enjoying, as far as 
can be enjoyed in confinement, its respective modes 
of life, in the company of the others ; the weak with- 
out fear, and the strong without the desire to in- 
jure. It is impossible to imagine any prettier ex- 
hibition of kindness than is here shown : the rab- 
bit and the pigeon playfully contending for a lock 
of hay to make up their nests ; the sparrow some- 
times perched on the head of the cat, and some- 
times on that of the owl, each its natural enemy ; 
and the mice playing about with perfect indiffer- 
ence to the presence either of cat, or hawk, or owl. 
The modes by which the man has effected this, are, 
first, by keeping all the creatures well fed ; and, 



MENAGERIES. 



37 




28 NATITEAL HISTORY. 

secondly, by accustoming one species to the society 
of the other at a very early period of their lives. 
The ferocious instincts of those who prey on the 
weaker are never called into action ; their nature 
is subdued to a systematic gentleness ; the circum- 
stances by which they are surrounded are favoura- 
ble to the cultivation of their kindlier dispositions ; 
all their desires and pleasures are bounded by their 
little cage ; and though the old cat sometimes takes 
a stately walk on the parapet of the bridge, he duly 
returns to his companions, with whom he has been 
so long happy, without at all thinking that he was 
born to devour any of them. This is an example, 
and a powerful one, of what may be accomplished 
by a proper education, which rightly estimates the 
force of habit, and confirms, by judicious manage- 
ment, that habit which is most desirable to be made 
a rule of conduct. The principle is the same, 
whether it be applied to children or to brutes. 

' Menageries may be considered among the most 
rational gratifications of curiosity. All classes of 
persons go to see these exhibitions ; and it is not 
too much to assert that many come away with their 
understandings enlarged and their stores of usefui 
knowledge increased. The animals may be confined 
in miserable dens, where their natural movements 
are painfully retsrained ; the keepers may be lam. 
entably ignorant, and impose upon the credulous a 
great number of false stories, full of wonderment 
and absurdity : but still people see the real things 
about which they have heard and read (though 
they are not always pointed out to them by their 
right names), and they thus acquire a body of facts 



which make a striking impression upon their mem 
ories and understandings. The sagacity of the ele- 
phant and the lofty port of the hon can never be 
forgotten. The actual inspection of such collec- 
tions of animals, too, gradually obliterates the im- 
pressions of those false accounts which the early 
naturalists multiplied with a fond credulity, and 
which, like all other mysterious stories, took the 
firmest hold of the popular mind. People see in 
these menageries a great number of rare animals, 
brought together from distant parts of the earth, 
whose habits are very curious and surprising : but 
they never see the Griffin, which is represented as 
half beast and half bird ; nor the Centaur, which 
the poets have described as half horse and half 
man ; nor the Phoenix, which is drawn as a bird, 
and is stated to perish by fire at the end of a hun- 
dred years, and then to rise again from its own 
ashes. They thus gradually learn to disbelieve the 
existence of these things, because the fables to 
which they have trusted never receive a confirma- 
tion from any living specimen ; while, on the other 
hand, the statements of intelligent travellers and 
naturalists, which they may have also heard of, are 
abundantly proved by the evidence of their own 
senses. To acquire the habit of discriminating 
between what is true and what is false, to learn to 
separate fable from fact, to perceive what parts of 
literature belong to the freaks of the imagination, 
and what to diligent inquiry and sober reasoning, 
this is the very foundation of all valuable knowl- 
edge ; and to obtain this habit of mind is one of 
the happiest consequences of that habit of obser- 
C 2 



so NATURAL HISTORY. 

vation which, as we have already said, a love for 
the study of nature is so fitted to call forth. 

A better system of education has instructed us 
that there is nothing in nature beneath the atten- 
tion of a reasonable being ; that some of the wisest 
and most philosophic of mankind have devoted 
themselves with a passionate ardour to the cultiva- 
tion of Natural History as a science ; and that, if 
children feel the deepest interest in safely beholding 
those ferocious animals which form such attractive 
objects in many of the stories dedicated to their 
use, that interest may be readily carried far beyond 
the gratification of a passing curiosity, and may 
become the excitement to the acquisition of a great 
deal of real knowledge, capable of being presented 
in the most captivating form. 

In the barbarous ages, and till within the last 
century, beasts of prey were considered the especial 
properties of kings, as something typical of their 
power and greatness. In the fortress where the 
crown of the ancient English monarchs was kept, 
were also confined their lions. These were gener. 
ally maintained at the expense of the people, and 
sometimes of the civic officers of London, by spe- 
cial writ ; and the keeper of the lions was a person 
of rank attached to the court. Gradually, this ex- 
ertion of the royal prerogative fell into decay ; and 
if a foreign potentate presented a tiger or a leopard 
to the king, as was often the case with the rulers 
of the maritime states of Africa, the animal was 
given to the keeper of the menagerie, to add to his 
gtock of attractions for the public. Farther, no 
care was taken of the collection on the part of the 
sovereign or the government. It is highly credit- 



MENAGERIES. 31 

able to the present keeper that he has judiciously 
availed himself of the growing taste for zoological 
pursuits, to render his collection in some degree 
worthy of a country possessing such opportunities 
of obtaining the finest specimens of animal life 
which the world can afford. 

The kings of France had at Versailles such a 
menagerie as the kings of England have had in 
the tower. It was at this menagerie that Buffon 
and Daubenton studied. In 1793 the collection 
was so reduced, that it consisted only of a quagga, 
a bubale (the cervine of Pennant), a rhinoceros, 
a lion, and a hooded pigeon. The celebrated St. 
Pierre, who succeeded Buffon as keeper of the 
Jardin des Plantes, where there was a splendid mil' 
seum of natural history, laboured most assiduously to 
add a menagerie to the establishment. He succeed- 
ed ; and the collection was begun with the remnant of 
the royal collection of Versailles. The menagerie 
of Paris is now one of the principal attractions of 
that capital. In the number of its specimens, in 
the convenience of its arrangements, and in the 
large scale of its accommodation for the animals 
according to their respective natures, it is infinitely 
superior to any other menagerie, and is therefore 
deservedly visited by all foreigners. St. Pierre, 
among the arguments which he employed for the 
formation of this establishment, says, " Colbert at- 
tracted many strangers to our capital by the fetes 
which he gave to Lewis XIV. ; a free nation ought 
to invite them thither by the schools of useful knowl- 
edge which it opens to the human race." His ar- 
guments were successful. 

The establishment of the Menagerie at the Jar. 



32 NATURAL HISTORY. 

din des Plantes has afforded opportunities for the 
study of natural history, which have advanced the 
branch of the science that relates to quadrupeds in 
a most remarkable degree. The accurate descrip- 
tions of Cuvier, of Geoffroy, of Desmarest, and ot 
other distinguished naturalists of France, are prin- 
cipally to be ascribed to their diligent studies in 
this school. Buffon was one of the most eloquent 
of natural historians. Wherever he describes, 
from actual observation, the appearance, the in- 
stincts, and the habits of animals, he is interesting 
not only to the learned, but to the least informed 
reader. The greater part of what is really valu- 
able in his writings is derived from the accurate 
study of some individual specimen ; and his most 
splendidly coloured portraits are those for which 
he had living models. But such opportunities of 
gathering materials for fresh and vivid description, 
from real, animated nature, were oftentimes want- 
ing to Buffon. He occasionally writes from vague 
and uncertain narratives ; and then, as might be ex- 
pected, he is superficial and full of false theories. 
His successors have had more extended opportuni- 
ties of observation ; and the accuracy of their facts, 
therefore, leaves us less reason to regret the ab- 
sence of those charms of style which render Buffon 
one of the most deHghtful of writers. 

The five animals which remained of the mena- 
gerie of Versailles were offered to St. Pierre, as 
keeper of the Cahinet of Natural History, to form 
skeletons to be added to that collection. He wisely 
seized upon the opportunity to combat a prejudice 
which then existed, and which even still exists, that 
stuffed specimens and anatomical preparations are 



i 



MENAGEEIES. 33 

quite as valuable for the purposes of science as 
living animals. Comparative anatomy, which is 
doubtless an important part of natural science, may 
certainly be studied in museums ; but when the 
argument is carried farther by those naturalists who 
say, " It is sufficient to have the means of examin 
ing dead animals, for by such we may learn to dis- 
tinguish the species and the kinds of each, as well 
as from living specimens," the indignant answer 
of St. Pierre is worthy attention.* 

" Those who have studied nature only in books 
can see only their books in nature ; they look upon 
the natural world only to find therein the names 
and the characters of their systems. If they are 
botanists, they are satisfied to have discovered a 
plant of which some author has spoken ; and hav- 
ing assigned it to the class and the order which he 
has pointed out, they gather it, and, spreading it 
between two bits of gray paper, they sit down 
content with their knowledge and their researches. 
They do not form a herbal to study nature, but 
they study nature to form a herbal. It is in the 
same way that they make collections of animals^ 
that they may learn their genera and their species, 
and treasure up their names. 

" But can he be a lover of nature who thus stud- 
ies her wonderful works? How great a difference 
is there between a dead vegetable, dry, faded, dis- 
coloured, whose stems, and leaves, and flowers are 
crumbling to powder, and a living vegetable, full 
of sap, which buds, flowers, gives forth perfume, 
fructifies, and sows itself again ; maintains a uni- 
versal harmony with the elements, with insects, 

♦ M6moire sur la Menagerie. OEuvres de St. Pierre, torn, 
xu., p. 654. Paris, 1818. 



34 NATTTRAL HISTORY. 

with birds, with quadrupeds, and, combining with a 
thousand other vegetables, crowns our hills and 
adorns our river banks ! 

" Can we recognise the verdure and the flowers 
of a meadow in a haystack ? or the majesty of the 
trees of a forest in a bundle of fagots ? The ani- 
mal loses by death even more of its characteristics 
than the vegetable : for the animal has received 
a more vigorous portion of life. Its principal 
qualities vanish ; its eyes are shut, its pupils are 
dim, its limbs are stiff; it is without warmth, with- 
out motion, without feeling, without voice, without 
instinct. What a difference between the animal 
who enjoys the light, distinguishes objects, moves 
towards them, calls the female, couples, makes its 
nest or lair, brings up its young, defends them from 
their enemies, congregates with its kind, and gives 
music to our woods and animation to our mead- 
ows ! Do you recognise the lark, gay as the breath 
of morning, who, at ' heaven's gate sings,' when he 
is suspended from the beak upon a bit of pack- 
thread ; or the bleating sheep and the labouring ox 
m the well-dressed limbs of a butcher's shop ? The 
best prepared animal only offers a stuffed skin and 
a skeleton. The life is wanting by which he was 
classed in the animal kingdom. The stuffed wolf 
may preserve his teeth, but the peculiar instinct 
which determined his ferocious character is gone, 
and he then scarcely differs from the friendly dog." 

There is much truth in these remarks, and their 
good sense ought not to be overlooked, though 
the style in which it is conveyed be somewhat de- 
clamatory. For all popular purposes, menageries 
offer much more interesting modes of studying 



MENAGERIES. 35 

some parts, and those the most important, of the 
animal kingdom, than the best museum. In this 
sense the homely saying is quite correct, that " a 
living dog is better than a dead lion." 

It will be the object of this little book to pro- 
mote a taste for natural history, by giving faithful 
descriptions of living animals, by rejecting all fab- 
ulous and doubtful relations, and by leading on- 
ward to a more scientific knowledge, through the 
medium of what appears to combine the entertain- 
ing with the useful. We first desire to fix the 
habit of attention upon natural objects. To effect 
this, we shall attempt to present some of those ob- 
jects to the mind in a way that may excite a ra- 
tional curiosity towards what is rare and wonder- 
ful ; never forgetting to direct it, at the same time^ 
towards what is familiar, but not less remarkable. 
Everything in nature is full of instruction. The 
intelligence of the elephant and the instinct of the 
spider are equally deserving of observation and in- 
quiry ; and are equally examples of the wisdom 
and power of Him who said, " Let the earth bring 
forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and 
creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind." 
It is for this cause especially that we consider at- 
tention can never be ill bestowed, whether it be 
directed to the habits of our humble companions, 
such as the dog and the horse, or excited by the 
rarities of foreign lands, as viewed in menageries. 

In such establishments there are various meas- 
ures of attraction, as we have already seen ; but 
there are none without some interest. Even the 
wandering Italian, who exhibits his bird and his 
dog to every by-stander, has something to show 



36 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



which may exemplify the force of instinct or of 
habit, and thus teach us some one of the lessons 
which the whole Book of Nature offers to him who 
will read u aright. 



CHAPTER III- 

THE DOG. 




Esquimaux dog. Canis familiaris Borealis. — DesmaREST. 



In the garden of the Zoological Society are some 
remarkably fine specimens of dogs ; and one of the 



THE Boa* 3t 

finest and most interesting is the dog of the Esqui- 
maux. Peter (so he is called) was brought to Eng- 
land by Lieut. Henderson, R.N., one of the com- 
panions of Captain Ross. This variety of dog 
most nearly resembles the shepherd's dog and the 
wolf-dog. The ears are short and erect ; the tail 
is bushy, and carried in a graceful curve over the 
back : in this particular the Esquimaux dog prin- 
cipally differs from the wolf of the same district, 
whose tail is carried between his legs in running* 
The tail turned upward is the distinguishing char- 
acteristic of the domestic dog of every variety. 
It has been considered by some naturalists that these 
dogs are wolves in a state of domestication. The 
anatomy of both, for the most part, corresponds | 
the wolf is, however, larger and more muscular* 
The average height of the Esquimaux dog is one 
foot, ten inches ; the length of his body, from the 
occiput (the back of the head) to the insertion of 
the tail, two feet, three inches ; and of the tail it- 
self, one foot, one inch. The dog in the Zoologi- 
cal Garden is of a white colour, with somewhat of 
a yellow tinge. Some of the Esquimaux dogs are 
brindled, some black and white, some almost en- 
tirely black, and some are of a dingy red. Their 
coat is thick and furry ; the hair, in winter, being 
'from three to four inches long: nature has also 
provided them with an under coating of close soft 
wool at that season, which they lose in spring ; 
so that they endure their climate with comparative 
comfort. They never bark, but have a long, melan- 
choly howl, like the wolf. They are familiar and 
domestic, but snarl and fight among themselves 
much more than dogs in general. The specimen 
D 



88 NATURAL HISTORY. 

in the Zoologicol Garden is good-tempered, and 
delights to be noticed and caressed, even by stran- 
gers. 

The Esquimaux, a race of people inhabiting the 
most northerly parts of the American continent and 
the adjoining islands, are dependant upon the ser- 
vices of this faithful species of dog for most of the 
few comforts of their live&; for assistance in the 
chase ; for carrying burdens ; and for their rapid 
and certain conveyance over the trackless- snows 
of their dreary plains. The dogs, subjected to a 
constant dependance upon their masters, receiving 
scanty food and abundant chastisement, assist them 
in hunting the seal, the reindeer, and the bear. 
In the summer, a single dog carries a weight of 
thirty pounds in attending his master in the pur- 
suit of game : in winter, yoked in numbers to heavy 
sledges, they drag five or six persons at the rate of 
seven or eight miles an hour, and will perform jour- 
neys of sixty miles a day. What the reindeer is 
to the Laplander, this dog is to the Esquimaux. 
He is a faithful slave, who grumbles, but does not 
rebel ; whose endurance never tires ; and whose 
fidelity is never shaken by blows and starving. 
These animals are obstinate in their nature : but 
the women, who treat them with more kindness 
than the men, and who nurse them in their helpless 
state or when they are sick, have an unbounded 
command over their affections ; and can thus catch 
them at any time, and entice them from their huts 
to yoke them to the sledges, even when they are suf- 
fering the severest hunger, and have no resource 
but to eat the most tough and filthy remains of ani- 
mal matter which they can espy on their laborious 
journeys. 



THE DOG. 39 

The mode in which the Esquimaux dogs are em- 
ployed in drawing the sledge is deseribed in a very 
striking manner by Captain Parry, in his " Journal 
of a Second Voyage for the discovery of a North- 
west passage." We should diminish the value of 
the narrative were we to abridge it. 

" When drawing a sledge, the dogs have a sim- 
ple harness (annoo) of deer or seal skin, going round 
the neck by one bight, and another for each of the 
fore legs, with a single thong leading over the back, 
and attached- to the sledge as a trace. Though 
they appear at first sight to be huddled together 
without regard to regularity, there is, in fact, con- 
siderable attention paid to their arrangement, par- 
ticularly in the selection of a dog of peculiar spirit 
and sagacity, who is allowed, by a longer trace, to 
precede the rest as leader, and to whom, in turning 
to the right or left, the driver usually addresses 
himself. This choice is made without regard to 
age or sex ; and the rest of the dogs take prece- 
dence according to their training and sagacity, 
the least effective being put nearest the sledge. 
The leader is usually from eighteen to twenty feet 
from the fore part of the sledge, and the hindmost 
dog about half that distance ; so that when ten or 
twelve are running together, several are nearly 
abreast of each other. The driver sits quite low, 
on the forepart of the sledge, with his feet over- 
hanging the snow on one side, and having in his 
hand a whip, of which the handle, made either of 
wood, bone, or wlialebone, is eighteen inches, and 
the lash more than as many feet, in length : the 
part of the thong next the handle is platted a little 
way down to stiffen it and give it a spring, on which 



40 NATURAL HISTORY. 

miich of its use depends ; and that which compo- 
ses the lash is chewed by the women, to make it 
flexible to frosty weather. The men acquire from 
their youth considerable expertness in the use of 
this whip, the lash of which is left to trail along the 
ground by the side of the sledge, and with which 
they can inflict a very severe blow on any dog at 
pleasure. Though the dogs are kept in training 
entirely by fear of the whip, and, indeed, without 
it would soon have their own way, its immediate 
eflect is always detrimental to the draught of the 
Bledge ; for not only does the individual that is 
struck draw back and slacken his trace, but gener- 
ally turns upon his next neighbour, and this, pass- 
ing on to the next, occasions a general divergence, 
accompanied by the usual yelping and showing of 
the teeth. The dogs then come together again by 
degrees, and the draught of the sledge is accelera- 
ted ; but even at the best of times, by this rude 
mode of draught, the traces of one third of the dogs 
form an angle of thirty or forty degrees on each 
side of the direction on which the sledge is advan- 
cing. Another great inconvenience attending the 
Esquimaux method of putting the dogs to, besides 
that of not employing their strength to the best 
advantage, is the constant entanglement of the 
traces by the dogs repeatedly doubling under from 
side to side to avoid the whip ; so that, after run- 
ning a few miles, the traces always require to be 
taken ofl* and cleaned. 

" In directing the sledge, the whip acts no very 
essential part, the driver for this purpose using cer- 
tain words, as the carters dc with us, to make the 
dogs turn more to the right or left. To these a 



THE DOG. 41 

good leader attends with admirable precision, es- 
pecially if his own name be repeated at the same 
time, looking behind over his shoulder with great 
earnestness, as if Ustening to the directions of the 
driver. On a beaten track, or even where a sin- 
gle foot or sledge mark is occasionally discernible, 
there is not the slightest trouble in guiding the dogs : 
for even in the darkest night and in the heaviest 
snowdrift there is little or no danger of their lo- 
sing the road, the leader keeping his nose near the 
ground, and directing the rest with wonderful sa- 
gacity. Where, however, there is no beaten track, 
the best driver among them makes a terrible cir- 
cuitous course, as all the Esquimaux roads plainly 
show ; these generally occupying an extent of six 
miles, when, with a horse and sledge, the journey 
would scarcely have amounted to five. On rough 
ground, as among hummocks of ice, the sledge 
would be frequently overturned or altogether stop- 
ped if the driver did not repeatedly get off, and, 
by lifting or drawing it to one side, steer clear of 
those accidents. At all times, indeed, except on a 
smooth and well-made road, he is pretty constantly 
employed thus with his feet, which, together with 
his never-ceasing vociferations and frequent use 
of the whip, renders the driving of one of these ve- 
hicles by no means a pleasant or easy task. When 
the driver wishes to stop the sledge, he calls out 
' Wo, woa,' exactly as our carters do, but the atten- 
tion paid to this command depends altogether on 
his ability to enforce it. If the weight is small and 
the journey homeward, the dogs are not to be thus 
delayed ; the driver is therefore obliged to dig his 
heels in the snow to obstruct their progress, and, 
D 2 



42 NATURAL HISTORY. 

having thus succeeded in stopping them, he stands 
up with one leg before the foremost crosspiece of 
the sledge, till, by means of laying the whip gently 
over the dog's head, he has made them all lie down. 
He then takes care not to quit his position, so that, 
should the dogs set off, he is thrown upon the sledge 
instead of being left behind by them. 

" With heavy loads, the dogs draw best with one 
of their own people, especially a woman, walking 
a little way ahead ; and in this case they are 
sometimes enticed to mend their pace by holding 
a mitten to the mouth, and then making the motion 
of cutting it with a knife and throwing it on the 
snow, when the dogs, mistaking it for meat, hasten 
forward to pick it up. The women also entice them 
from the huts in a similar manner. The rate at 
which they travel depends, of course, on the weight 
they have to draw and the road on which their 
journey is performed. When the latter is level, 
and very hard and smooth, constituting what, in 
other parts of North America, is called * good sleigh- 
ing,' six or seven dogs will draw from eight to ten ^ 
hundred weight, at the rate of seven or eight miles 
an hour, for several hours together ; and will easily, 
under these circumstances, perform a journey of 
fifty or sixty miles a day. On untrodden snow, 
five-and-twenty or thirty miles would be a good 
day's journey. The same number of well-fed dogs, 
with a weight of only five or six hundred pounds 
(that of the sledge included), are almost unman. 
ageable, and will, on a smooth road, run any way 
they please, at the rate of ten miles an hour. The 
work performed by a greater number of dogs is, 
however, by no means in proportion to this, owing 



THE DOG. 43 

to the imperfect mode already described of employ- 
ing the strength of these sturdy creatures, and to 
the more frequent snarling and fighting occasioned 
by an increase of numbers." 




Esquimaux Dogs and Sledge, 

The dogs of the Esquimaux offer to us a striking 
example of the great services which the race of 
dogs has rendered to mankind in the progress of 
civilization. The inhabitants of the shores of Baf- 
fin's Bay, and those still more inclement regions to 
which our discovery ships have recently penetrated, 
are perhaps never destined to advance much far- 
ther than their present condition in the scale of hu- 
manity. Their climate forbids them attempting 
the gratification of any desires beyond the com- 
monest animal wants. In the short summers, they 
hunt the reindeer for a stock of food and clothing ; 
during the long winter, when the stern demands of 
hunger drive them from their snow huts to search 
for provisions, they still find a supply in the rein- 
deer, in the seals which lie in holes under the ice 
of the lakes, and in the bears which prowl about 



44 NATURAL HISTORY. 

on the frozen shores of the sea. Without the ex- 
quisite scent and undaunted courage of their dogs, 
the several objects of their chase could never be 
obtained in sufficient quantities during the winter 
to supply the v^ants of the inhabitants ; nor could 
the men be conveyed from place to place over the 
snow with that celerity which greatly contributes 
to their success in hunting. In drawing the sledges, 
if the dogs scent a reindeer even a quarter of a 
mile distant, they gallop on furiously in the direc- 
tion of the scent ; and the animal is soon within 
reach of the unerring arrow of the hunter. They 
will discover a seal-hole entirely by the smell at a 
very great distance. Their desire to attack the 
ferocious bear is so great, that the word nennook, 
which signifies that animal, is often used to encour- 
age them when running in a sledge ; two or three 
dogs, led forward by a man, will fasten upon the 
largest bear without hesitation. They are eager 
to chase every animal but the wolf; and of him 
they appear to have an instinctive terror, which 
manifests itself, on his approach, in a loud and con- 
tinued howl. Certainly there is no animal which 
combines so many properties useful to his master 
as the dog of the Esquimaux. 

With the exception of that most serviceable prop- 
erty of drawing and carrying burdens, most of the 
various races of dogs have, in a singular manner, 
assisted mankind in subduing the earth. In our 
own country, the wolf, the brown bear, and the 
boar were once common ; they are now extirpa- 
ted. This result, without which civilization must 
have very slowly advanced, could not have been 
effected without the assistance of the dog. Cuvier, 



THE DOG* 45 

the great French naturalist, says, " the dog is the 
most complete, the most remarkable, and the most 
useful conquest ever made by man. Every spe- 
cies has become our property; each individual 
is altogether devoted to his master, assumes his 
manners, knows and defends his goods, and re- 
mains attached to him until death; and all this 
proceeds neither from want nor constraint, but 
solely from true gratitude and friendship. The 
swiftness, the strength, and the scent of the dog 
have created for man a powerful ally against other 
animals, and were, perhaps, necessary to the estab- 
lishment of society. He is the only animal which 
has followed man through every region of the 
earth." BufFon says, " The art of training dogs 
seems to have been the first invented by man ; and 
the result of it was the conquest and peaceable pos- 
session of the earth." But this art would never 
have become perfectly successful and completely 
universal, had there not been in the race of dogs a 
natural desire to be useful to man ; an aptitude for 
his society ; a strong and spontaneous longing for 
his friendship. Burchell, a distinguished traveller 
in Africa, has observed, that we never see in vari- 
ous countries an equal familiarity with other quad- 
rupeds, according to the habits, the taste, or the 
caprice of different nations ; and he then concludes, 
that the universal friendship of the man and the dog 
must be the result of the laws of nature. With 
singular propriety, therefore, has the name Cards 
familiaris — domestic or familiar dog— -been assign- 
ed by Linnaeus to the species. 

The dogs of the Esquimaux lead always a fa- 
tiguing, and oflen a very painful life. They are 



46 NATURAL HISTORY. 

not, like the Siberian dogs (to which they bear a 
considerable resemblance), turned out in the sum- 
mer to seek their own sustenance : at that period 
they are fat and vigorous ; for they have abundance 
of kaow, or the skin and part of the blubber of the 
walrus.* But their feeding in winter is very pre- 
carious. Their masters have but little to spare ; 
and the dogs become miserably thin, at a time when 
the severest labour is imposed upon them. It is 
not, therefore, surprising that the shouts and blows 
of their drivers have no effect in preventing them 
from rushing out of their road to pick up whatever 
they can descry ; or that they are constantly creep- 
ing into the huts to pilfer anything within their 
reach : their chances of success are but small ; for 
the people within the huts are equally keen in the 
protection of their stores, and they spend half their 
time in shouting out the names of the intruders 
(for the dogs have all names), and in driving them 
forth by the most unmerciful blows. This is a 
singular, but, from the difference of circumstances, 
not unnatural contrast to the treatment of dogs 
described in Homer. The princes of the Trojan 
war allowed their dogs to wait under their tables, 
to gather up the remains of their feasts. In the 
twenty-third book of the Iliad, it is mentioned that 
Patroclus had no fewer than nine such humble re- 
tainers. The same princes, too, as we learn in 
the tenth book of the Odyssey, carried home to 
their dogs the fragments which fell from the tables 

♦ The attachment of these dogs to the taste and smell of fat 
is as remarkable as the passion of Cossacks for oil. At Chelsea 
there are two domesticated Esquimaux dogs, that will stand, 
hour after hour, in front of a candlemaker's workshop, snuffing 
the savoury effluvia of his melting tallow. 



THE DOG. 47 

of their entertainers. Among these fragments 
were the soft and fine parts of bread, called aTro- 
uayda^cat,, with which the guests wiped their jfin- 
gers when the meal was finished, and which were 
always a perquisite to the dogs. In allusion, prob- 
ably, to this custom, the woman of Canaan says, 
" the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their 
master's table." 

The hunger which the Esquimaux dogs feel so 
severely in winter is somewhat increased by the 
temperature they live in. In cold climates, and in 
temperate ones in cold weather, animal food is re- 
quired in larger quantities than in warm weather 
and in temperate regions. The only mode which 
the dogs have of assuaging or deceiving the calls 
of hunger, is by the distension of the stomach with 
any filth which they can find to swallow. The 
wolves and reindeer of the polar countries, when 
pressed by hunger in the winter, devour clay. The 
Kamtschatkans sometimes distend their stomachs 
with sawdust. Humboldt relates that the Oto- 
macs, during the periodical inundation of the rivers 
of South America, when the depth of the water 
prevents their customary occupation of fishing, 
appease their hunger, even for several months, by 
swallowing a fine unctuous clay, slightly baked. 
Many other instances of this nature are given in 
Dr. Elliotson's learned and amusing notes to his 
edition of Blumenbach's Physiology. The painful 
sense of hunger is generally regarded as the effect 
of the contraction of the stomach, which effect is 
constantly increased by a draught of cold liquid. 
Captain Parry mentions, that in winter the Esqui- 
maux dogs will not drink water unless it happen to 



48 NATURAL HISTORY. 

be oily. They know by experience that their 
cravings would be increased by this indulgence, 
and they lick some clean snow as a substitute, 
which produces a less contraction of the stomach 
than water. Dogs, in general, can bear hunger 
for a very long time without any serious injury, 
having a supply of some substance for the disten- 
sion of their stomachs. It is mentioned in the 
Memoirs of the French Academy of Sciences, that 
a bitch, which had been shut up and forgotten in a 
country house, was sustained for forty days without 
any nourishment beyond the wool of a quilt, which 
she had torn in pieces. A dog has been known to 
live thirty-six days without food or substitute for 
food. 

We have already noticed that the Esquimaux 
dogs do not bark. This is a peculiarity of many 
varieties of the dog, but very rarely of those which 
are natives of temperate countries. Probably this 
is an effect of high as well as of low temperature. 
Sonnini says, that the people of Upper Egypt have 
a species of dog resembling the shepherd's dog, 
with voices so weak that their barking can scarcely 
be heard. Columbus observed, that the voices ol 
the dogs which he took to the West Indies became 
feeble. In both cases the tropical climate probably 
produced this result. The prophet Isaiah alludes 
to this peculiarity in his denunciation of idle in- 
structors : " They are dumb dogs, and cannot bark." 

The inhabitants of Holland and the Netherlands 
have long been accustomed to the use of dogs for 
purposes of draught. Pennant mentions, that in 
those countries they draw little carts to the herb- 
markets. In London, within these few years, the 



THE DOG. 



49 



use of dogs in dragging light vehicles has become 
very general ; and though their strength is rarely 
employed in combination, as is the case with 
the Esquimaux sledge-dogs, their energy makes 
them capable of moving very considerable weights. 
There are many bakers in the more populous parts 
of London who have a travelling shop upon wheels, 
drawn by one or two stout mastiffs or bulldogs. 
But the venders of cat's-meat appear to have de- 




rived the largest benefit from this application of 
animal power. The passenger through the narrow 
streets and lanes of London is often amused by 
the scenes between the consumers of the commodity 
and those who bring it to the houses. At the 
well-known cry of the dealer, the cats of a whole 
district are in activity, anxiously peeping out of 
the doors for the expected meal, and sometimes 
E 



50 NATURAL HISTORY. 

fearlessly approaching the little cart, without ap- 
prehension of their supposed enemy who draws it. 

The dogs attached to these carts appear to have 
no disposition to molest the impatient groups of 
cats which gather around them. The habit of con- 
sidering dogs and cats as natural enemies has tend- 
ed to the production of a great deal of cruelty. It 
is true that dogs will, by instinct, pursue anything 
which flies from them ; and puppies will thus run 
after, and frequently kill, chickens. But dogs, by 
chastisement, may be made to comprehend that no- 
thing domestic must be molested. 

The Newfoundland dogs, one of the most active 
and sagacious varieties, are employed in their na- 
tive districts to draw carts and sledges laden with 
wood and fish, and to perform a variety of useful 
offices, in the place of the horse. In many of the 
northern countries, the bold and powerful races of 
dogs are thus rendered peculiarly valuable. A 
century ago, nearly all the travelling intercourse 
of Canada was carried on by dogs. The superi- 
ority of the Newfoundland dogs in swimming is 
well known : they are semi-webbed between the 
toes, which mechanism of the foot is of the greatest 
advantage to them ; presenting, as it does, an ex- 
tended surface to press away the water from be- 
hind, and then collapsing when it is drawn forward 
previous to taking the stroke. The hereditary 
habits of these dogs, too, eminently qualify them 
for swimming or rowing through the water, as the 
action is more correctly described by Sir Everard 
Home. It is thus that we have the most abundant 
instances of human life being saved by these gen- 
erous and courageous animals. All dogs, how- 



THE DOG. 51 

ever, can swim ; although some dislike the water, 
and take to it with difficulty at the bidding of their 
masters. The bulldog would appear the least like- 
ly to combat with a heavy sea, as the Newfound. 
land dogs often do ; and yet the following circum- 
stance is well authenticated : On board a ship, 
which struck upon a rock near the shore during a 
gale, there were three dogs, two of the Newfound- 
land variety, and an English bulldog, rather small 
in growth, but very firmly built and strong. It 
was important to have a rope carried ashore ; and 
as no boat could live for an instant in the breakers 
towards the land, it was thought that one of the 
Newfoundland dogs might succeed ; but he was 
not able to struggle with the waves, and perished. 
The other Newfoundland dog, upon being thrown 
overboard with the rope, shared a similar fate. 
But the bulldog, though not habituated to the wa- 
ter, swam triumphantly to land, and thus saved the 
lives of the persons on board. Among them was 
his master, a military officer, who still has the dog 
in his possession. 

The changes in the quantity and colour of their 
clothing, which almost all polar animals undergo 
with the change of the seasons, is one of the most 
remarkable and beautiful provisions of nature. 
The fur, or wool, or feathers, with which quadru- 
peds and birds are covered, is regulated generally 
as to its quahty and quantity by the temperature 
of the region which the animal inhabits. The 
dogs of Guinea, the Indian sheep, and the African 
ostrich, are so thinly clothed, that they may be con- 
sidered almost naked. The temperature of their 
bodies is thus necessarily diminished in proportion 



62 NATURAL HISTORY 

to the heat of the climate in which they Hve. The 
Iceland sheep and the Esquimaux dog, on the con- 
trary, are covered with a warm coat, both of hair 
and wool, which enables them to bear the most in- 
tense cold without much inconvenience. Previous 
to winter, the hair of all animals is increased in 
quantity and length, and the more they are exposed 
the greater is the increase. Horses and cows 
housed during the winter, have short and thin hair 
in comparison with those exposed to the weather, 
whose coats become shaggy. The groom is aware 
of this arrangement of nature, and he redoubles his 
labour in winter to give his horse a fine coat, and 
thus to render him unfit for exposure to the cold. 
The agents of the Hudson's Bay Company, who an- 
nually transmit to Europe many thousands of the 
most valuable furs, will only purchase of the In- 
dians, with whom they traffic, those which are ob- 
tained during the winter. The furs of those ani- 
mals of North America which are killed in the 
summer are quite unfit for purposes of commerce, 
and they are of an inferior quality early in the 
winters of unusual mildness. The growth of the 
hair is dependant upon the temperature of the at- 
mosphere ; and thus the skins of hares and rabbits 
with us are seldom ripe in the fur, as it is called, 
till frosty weather has set in. The moulting of 
birds, which takes place previous to winter, after 
their young are reared, is a similar provision of 
nature. By the renewal of the feathers, a sufficient 
covering is afforded to enable them to bear the ap- 
proaching change of season. 

The changes of colour in many of the polar ani- 
mals, and in others with which we are more fa- 



THE DOG. 53 

miliar, though an undisputed fact, is not generally 
understood as proceeding from the same principle 
of adaptation to the change of season as the in- 
crease in the quantity of their clothing. The Al- 
pine hare, which is found in Scotland, is in sum- 
mer of a tawny gray ; in winter it becomes of a 
snowy white. The ermine, which is also found in 
the British islands, has its summer coat of a red- 
dish brown ; in winter it affords the beautiful white 
fur which is so generally known, and with which 
the robes of the English judges are adorned. Ev- 
ery one is aware that in summer a black hat pro- 
duces a much stronger sense of heat to the wearer 
than a white one. The same thing occurs to ani- 
mals of a black and white colour. If they are 
placed in a higher temperature than that of their 
own bodies, the heat will enter the one that is black 
with the greatest rapidity, and elevate its tempera- 
ture very much above that of the other. When 
these animals, on the contrary, are placed in a sit- 
uation where the temperature is considerably lower 
than that of their own bodies, the black animal will 
give out its heat by radiation to every surroundmg 
object colder than itself much more quickly than the 
white animal. The surface which reflects heat most 
readily, as in objects of a white colour, suffers it to 
escape but slowly by radiation ; and it is for this 
reason that the white animal has its temperature re- 
duced most slowly in the winter.* The change of 
colour in the clothing of some quadrupeds and birds 

* See Fleming's Philosophy of Zoology, vol, ii. The protec- 
tion of the animal from pursuit is by some considered another 
end answered by the colour resembling that of the surrounding 
snow, 

E2 



64 NATURAL HISTORY. 

exposed to severe cold, as well as the increase in 
the quantity of their outward protection against its 
effects, forms one of those beautiful provisions of 
the Author of nature which we recognise in every 
examination of his works, but which we sometimes 
overlook in our hasty notice of ordinary appear- 
ances, without regard to the causes from which 
they spring. 

Many of the dogs of the northern regions can 
only be considered as half-domesticated. The Es- 
quimaux dogs, and those of the Laplanders, are in- 
deed faithful to their masters, return caresses for 
blows, and are, to a certain extent, obedient ; but 
even these rebel against authority, and fear no 
chastisement when they desire to satisfy their vo- 
racious appetites. The probability is, that they 
would be entirely obedient if they were regularly 
fed. As man in a highly civilized state acquires 
the greatest command over his instinctive powers, 
so the inferior animals, and dogs in particular, par- 
take of this effect of civilization. An English 
household dog will enter a larder even when hun- 
gry, and not touch the provisions which he finds 
unguarded; the Esquimaux dog, on the contrary, 
is always contending with the family of his master 
for a share of their scanty fare. An experienced 
pointer passes by the place from which he has seen 
a covey spring without indulging the feelings 
which must be aroused by the scent which the 
birds have left behind ; the Esquimaux dog often 
drags away his sledge in the direction of a rein- 
deer or a seal, quite uncontrollable by his surly 
master. Perhaps the education of each variety 
may have much to do with this. Those who have 



THR DOG. 55 

studied the training of sporting dogs have observed 
that gentle chastisements, often repeated and mixed 
with kindness, produce the most perfect obedience, 
while hasty severity frightens the animal for the 
moment, but leaves no permanent impression. The 
feeding of a kennel of fox-hounds is one of the 
most striking illustrations of the power of training 
to produce complete obedience. The energy and 
even fierceness of these dogs cannot be overlooked ; 
there is nothing slavish and crouching in their de- 
meanour. They are hungry, and they know they 
are about to be fed ; but they manifest no rebel- 
lious impatience. The feeder stations himself at 
the door which separates the outer kennel from the 
feeding room. At his presence a cry of joy is set 
up by the whole pack, but it is instantly silenced at 
his command. He calls "Juno ;" Juno passes out : 
" Ponto ;" Ponto follows ; and so on through the 
pack, even if there be thirty couple. If a young 
dog should attempt to go out of his order, he is 
turned back ; he recollects the punishment, and he 
seldom again transgresses. The pack has arrived 
at this state of perfect discipline by gentle correc- 
tion, and, what is more important, by a system of 
mutual instruction^ if we may venture so to ex- 
press this particular force of example. 

The dogs of Kamtschatka, as described in Von 
LangsdorfF's Travels, when, in summer, they are 
not wanted to draw the sledges of the inhabitants, 
are left to rove at large and find their own food. 
They keep on the seashore or in the neighbour- 
hood of rivers, lurking after fish, and standing in 
the water up to their bellies : when they see a fish, 
they snap at it with unerring aim. In the autumn 



56 NATURAL HISTORY. 

they return of their own accord to their particular 
owners in the villages. Hunger may have some- 
thing to do with this voluntary resignation of their 
liberty after their absolute freedom ; and the au- 
thor from whom we gather these particulars attrib- 
utes the circumstance wholly to hunger ; but it ap- 
pears to us that habit contributes an equally pow- 
erful motive, and that the two motives both oper- 
ate. A herd of cows, that come of their own will 
to the farmyard at milking time, from a distant 
pasture, desire to be relieved of the burden of 
their swollen udders ; and they know from habit, 
and the example of other cows who have thus acted, 
in what manner and at what period that relief 
will be afforded them. Many of the inferior ani- 
mals have a distinct knowledge of time. The sun 
appears to regulate the motions of those which 
leave their homes in the morning, to return at par- 
ticular hours of the evening. The Kamtschatka 
dogs are probably influenced in the autumnal return 
to their homes by a change of temperature. But 
in those animals possessing the readiest conceptions, 
as in the case of dogs in a highly civilized country, 
the exercise of this faculty is strikingly remarkable. 
Mr. Southey, in his Omniana, relates two instances 
of dogs that had acquired such a knowledge of time 
as would enable them to count the days of the 
week. He says, " My grandfather had one which 
trudged two miles every Saturday to cater for him- 
self in the shambles. I know another more ex- 
traordinary and well-authenticated example. A 
dog, which had belonged to an Irishman, and was 
sold by him in England, would never touch a mor- 
ael of food upon Friday. ^^ A gentleman has men- 



THE DOG. 57 

tioned to us, that, when a boy, he had a dog which, 
being in the habit of attending church regularly 
with his father's bailiff, in a parish some distance 
from Edinburgh, whenever he was with the family 
in Edinburgh would start off on a Saturday to the 
bailiff's house, that he might not lose his privilege 
and would punctually return. The same faculty 
of recollecting intervals of time exists, though in a 
more limited extent, in the horse. We knew a 
horse (and have witnessed the circumstance) which, 
being accustomed to be employed once a week on 
a journey with the newsman of a provincial papei; 
always stopped at the houses of the several cus- 
tomers, although they were sixty or seventy in num- 
ber. But, farther, there were two persons on the 
route who took one paper between them, and each 
claimed the privilege of having it first on the al- 
ternate Sunday. The horse soon became accus- 
tomed to this regulation ; and, although the parties 
lived two miles distant, he stopped once a fortnight 
at the door of the half-customer at Thorpe, and 
once a fortnight at that of the other half-customer 
at Chertsey, and never did he forget this arrange- 
ment, which lasted several years, or stop unneces- 
sarily when he once thoroughly understood the rule. 
The natural habits of the species, even in dogs, 
are not entirely overcome by domestication. The 
well-fed dog, however he may know from experi- 
ence that he shall receive a regular meal from the 
hand of his master, often hides his food although, 
perhaps, he never returns to his concealed stores : 
this is an hereditary habit, transmitted to him from 
a distant period, when his species were dependant 
upon chance for the supply of their necessities. The 



58 NATURAL HISTORY. 

Australasian dog, which is taken from a country 
imperfectly civilized, and which has, perhaps, lived 
in packs, associated in the pursuit of the penguin 
and the kangaroo, cannot readily put on the subor- 
dination of the mastiff or the spaniel. Even among 
the best disciplined domestic dogs of our own coun- 
try, the ancient instinct, which renders them beasts 
of prey, sometimes breaks out. We recollect 
several instances within our knowledge of house- 
dogs having taken, as the farmers expressed it, to 
worrying sheep ; they would do this slily, and 
would sometimes effect the most lamentable de- 
struction. There is no remedy short of the capi- 
tal punishment of such offenders, for they can 
never be broken of the habit when it has been once 
indulged. 

Not only are natural habits transmitted especi- 
ally to dogs by their parents, but even some of 
their acquired qualities. The pointer is of Spanish 
origin ; and those of the stanchest kind in this 
country are crossed with the fox-dog, to increase 
their speed. The natural instinct of the pointer, 
as seen at the present day in the true Spanish race, 
is to wind game ; to steal upon them by surprise ; 
and then, pausing for an instant, to spring upon 
them with an unerring aim derived from this pause. 
The crossed breed is less disposed, by its original 
nature, to stop at game than the Spanish progenitor. 
But education has converted the rapid rest and 
spring of the original Spanish pointer into the fixed 
and deliberate rest of the stanch dog : as a writer 
on this subject has quaintly but forcibly expressed 
it, " this sort of semicolon in his proceedings man 
converts into a full stop." The cultivated stanch- 



THE DOG. 



69 



ness of the pointer is inherited by his puppy, which 
may be seen earnestly standing at pigeons or spar- 
rows in a farmyard : he inherits the acquired 
faculty of his parent, and his master afterward 
gives it a direction. 

There is a pair of very beautiful mastiffs from 
Cuba in the garden of the Zoological Society. 
During the summer they were chained to separate 
kennels, as mastiffs usually are ; through the winter 
they have been placed in a den, perfectly sheltered 
from the weather. In their general form they very 
much resemble the English mastiff, the Canis fa- 
miliaris Anglicus of Desmarest, whose principal 
characteristics are a very short head, similar, in a 
great degree, to the head of the bulldog, the dis- 




Spanish Mastiffs from Cuba. 

tinctive mark of which is a flat forehead ; the ears 
pendant and never erect ; the Hps falling, covering 



60 NATURAL HISTORY. 

the lower jaw ; the extremity of the tail turned up- 
ward ; a fifth claw on the hind foot, more or less 
developed ; the nostrils separated one from another 
by a very deep furrow ; the hair generally close 
and short ; the colour various. The Cuba mas. 
tiffs above represented are of a rufous brown, ex- 
tremely beautiful, with their muzzles approaching 
to a jet black ; they are tractable and gentle. 

The bare mention of the dogs of South America 
must call up some of the most painful recollections 
in the history of the human race. The dog was 
entirely unknown to the inhabitants of the New 
World before the period when it was introduced 
there by the Europeans ; if we except an ex- 
tremely small species, called the Alco, which the 
Peruvians are represented to have domesticated as 
a sort of lapdog. The only description which we 
have of this animal is in a work by Fernandez, 
and the rude drawing which is there given of it en- 
ables us to form no accurate notion of its peculiar 
character. At the Island of St. Martha, Columbus 
found, according to Herrera's History of the Dis- 
covery of America, "many dogs which did not 
bark :" these are generally supposed to have been 
a species of wolf. The horse, the ox tribe, and 
the hog, were equally unknown to the Americans 
before the discovery by the Spaniards. The con- 
querors introduced each species ; and they multi- 
plied so amazingly, that the horses, the horned cat- 
tle, and the hogs overran the whole country, and 
to this day are found on the continent of South 
America in numerous herds ; the horses always 
ready for the service of the natives, who are the 
best riders in the world ; and the bullocks con- 



THE DOG. 61 

stantly offering a supply of food, and so numerous, 
that they are sometimes slaughtered for their hides 
alone. The number of dogs is much lessened ; 
but a century and a half ago, in Hispaniola (now 
called Hayli), Cuba, and all the Caribbee Islands, 
they were in such quantities, that they were occa- 
sionally destroyed to prevent their ravages upon 
the calves and foals of the wild cows and mares. 
According to the relations of the American voy- 
agers of the seventeenth century, these dogs hunted 
in packs of fifty or sixty, and they would attack a 
herd of wild boars without any fear. The late 
bishop of Calcutta, Reginald Heber, in his Journal, 
confirms a statement which used to be doubted as 
to the wild dogs of India hunting ferocious beasts. 
He states, upon the authority of the Khaysa peas- 
ants, near the Chinese frontier, that a tiger is often 
killed and torn to pieces by large packs of these 
dogs, which give tongue, and possess a very fine 
scent. 

The circumstances attending the introduction of 
dogs into the South American continent and isl- 
ands, and their subsequent wild state, are thus de- 
scribed in a singular book, "The History of the 
Bucaniers." 

" But here the curious reader may, perhaps, in- 
quire how so many wild dogs came here. The 
occasion was, the Spaniards having possessed these 
isles, found them peopled with Indians, a barba- 
rous people, sensual and brutish, hating all labour, 
and only inclined to killing and making war against 
their neighbours, not out of ambition, but only be- 
cause they agreed not with themselves in some 
common terms of language; and perceiving the 
F 



63 NATCJRAL HISTORY. 

dominion of the Spaniards laid great restrictions 
upon their lazy and brutish customs, they conceiv- 
ed an irreconcilable hatred against them, but es- 
pecially because they saw them take possession of 
their kingdoms and dominions : hereupon they 
made against them all the resistance they could, op- 
posing everywhere their designs to the utmost ; 
and the Spaniards finding themselves cruelly hated 
by the Indians, and nowhere secure from their 
treacheries, resolved to extirpate and ruin them, 
since they could neither tame them by civility nor 
conquer them with the sword. But the Indians, it 
being their custom to make their woods their chief 
places of defence, at present made these their ref- 
uge whenever they fled from the Spaniards ; here- 
upon, those first conquerors of the New World 
made use of dogs to range and search the intrica- 
test thickets of woods and forests, for those their 
implacable and unconquerable enemies ; thus they 
forced them to leave their old refuge, and submit 
to the sword, seeing no milder usage would do it ; 
hereupon they killed some of them, and, quartering 
their bodies, placed them in the highways, that oth- 
ers might take warning from such a punishment : 
but this severity proved of ill consequence ; for, in- 
stead of frighting them and reducing them to ci- 
vility, they conceived such horror of the Spaniards, 
that they resolved to detest and fly their sight for 
ever : hence the greatest part died in caves and 
subterraneous places of woods and mountains, in 
which places I myself have often seen great num- 
bers of human bones. The Spaniards, finding no 
more Indians to appear about the woods, turned 
away a great number of dogs they had in their 



THE DOG. 63 

houses, and they, finding no masters to keep them, 
betook themselves to the woods and fields to hunt 
for food to preserve their Hves ; thus, by degrees, 
they became unacquainted with houses, and grew 
wild. This is the truest account I can give of the 
multitudes of wild dogs in these parts." 

This dreadful narrative is abundantly confirmed 
even by the Spanish historians ; who seem, like the 
bucanier from whom we have quoted this passage, 
not to have had that natural horror of deeds of cru- 
elty, with which the accounts of them must in- 
spire us who look upon such things without passion 
or partiality. Columbus was in many respects a 
good and great man ; and yet, when he found, upon 
his return from Spain to Hispaniola, that the un- 
fortunate people were in revolt against the oppres- 
sions of his soldiers, he was determined to put them 
to death, in the most cruel manner, for that resist- 
ance to tyranny which was their natural right 
and duty. He went forth against the wretched 
people with his foot-soldiers and cavalry. The 
historian Herrera adds, " part of the force employ, 
ed by Columbus on this occasion consisted of twen- 
ty bloodhounds, which made great havoc among 
the naked Indians." Only one of the writers of 
those times speaks of such cruelties as they deserve ; 
and he was an extraordinary enthusiast, who spent 
his whole life in the endeavour to mitigate the fury 
of the conquerors. The name of this benevolent 
man was Bartholomew las Casas. Relating the 
events which took place in the island of Cuba, he 
says, " In three or four months I saw more than 
seven thousand children die of hunger, whose fa- 
thers and mothers had been dragged away to work 



64 NATUR-AL HISTORY. 

in the mines. I was witness, at the same time, of 
other cruelties not less horrible. It was resolved 
to march against the Indians who had fled to the 
mountains. They were chased, Hke wild beasts, 
with the assistance of bloodhounds, who had been 
trained to the thirst for human blood. Other 
means were employed for their destruction, so that 
before I had left the island, a little time after, it 
had become almost entirely a desert." And a des- 
ert it has partly remained to this day. The coast, 
which was most populous at the time when Colum- 
bus first touched there, is that which extends west- 
ward of the city of Trinidad, along the gulf of 
Xagua. Mr. Irving, the historian of Columbus, 
thus describes its present state : " All is now silent 
and deserted ; civilization, which has covered some 
parts of Cuba with glittering cities, has rendered 
this a solitude. The whole race of Indians has 
long since passed away, pining and perishing be- 
neath the domination of the strangers, whom they 
welcomed so joyfully to their shores." We shud- 
der ; and yet this is only a page out of the great 
book of human history, which records but little 
else than evils committed upon mankind, under the 
hateful names of conquest and glory. 

We could almost lose our love of dogs in thus 
learning how they have been trained for the most 
abominable purposes, did not our indignation more 
properly attach to those who so trained them. But 
the history of dogs will at once show us that their 
sagacity, their quick scent, their courage, and their 
perseverance, may be equally well trained for good 
as for evil. It is delightful to turn from the blood, 
hounds of the conquerors of America to the Alpine 



THE DOG. 65 

spaniels of the monks of St. Bernard. These won- 
derful dogs have been usually called mastiffs, prob- 
ably on account of their great strength ; but they 
strictly belong to the subdivision of spaniels, among 
which are found the shepherd's dog, the Esquimaux 
dog, and the other varieties most distinguished for 
intelligence and fidelity. 

The convent of the Great St. Bernard is situated 
near the top of the mountain known by that name, 
near one of the most dangerous passages of the 
Alps, between Switzerland and Savoy. In these 
regions the traveller is often overtaken by the most 
severe weather, even after days of cloudless beauty, 
when glaciers glitter in the sunshine, and the pink 
flowers of the rhododendron appear as if they were 
never to be sullied by the tempest. But a storm 
suddenly comes on ; the roads are rendered impass- 
able by drifts of snow : the avalanches, which are 
huge loosened masses of snow or ice, are swept 
into the valleys, carrying trees and crags of rocks 
before them. The hospitable monks, though their 
revenue is scanty, open their doors to every stran- 
ger who presents himself. To be cold, to be weary, 
to be benighted, constitute the title to their com- 
fortable shelter, their cheerful meal, and their 
agreeable converse. But their attention to the 
distressed does not end here. They devote them- 
selves to the dangerous task of searching for those 
unhappy person who may have been overtaken by 
the coming storm, and would perish but for their 
charitable succour. Most remarkably are they 
assisted in these truly Christian offices. They 
have a breed of noble dogs in their establishment, 
whose extraordinary sagacity often enables them 
F3 



66 NATURAL HISTORY. 

to rescue the traveller from destruction. Be. 
numbed with cold, weary in the search for a lost 
track, his senses yielding to the stupifying influence 
of frost, which betrays the exhausted sufferer into 
a deep sleep, the unhappy man sinks upon the 
ground, and the snowdrift covers him from human 
sight. It is then that the keen scent and the ex- 
quisite docility of these admirable dogs are called 
into action. Though the perishing man lie ten or 
even twenty feet beneath the snow, the delicacy of 
smell with which they can trace him offers a chance 
of escape. They scratch away the snow with their 
feet ; they set up a continued hoarse and solemn 
bark, which brings the monks and labourers of the 
convent to their assistance. To provide for the 
chance that the dogs, without human help, may 
succeed in discovering the unfortunate traveller, 
one of them has a flask of spirits round his neck, 
to which the fainting man may apply for support ; 
and another has a cloak to cover him. These 
wonderful exertions are often successful ; and even 
where they fail of restoring him who has perished, 
the dogs discover the body, so that it may be se- 
cured for the recognition of friends ; and such is 
the effect of the temperature, that the dead features 
generally preserve their firmness for the space of 
two years. One of these noble creatures was deco- 
rated with a medal, in commemoration of his hav- 
ing saved the lives of twenty-two persons, who, but 
for his sagacity, must have perished. Many trav- 
ellers who have crossed the passage of St. Bernard 
since the peace have seen this dog, and have heard, 
around the blazing fire of the monks, the story of 
his extraordinary career. He perished about the 



THE DOa. 



67 



year 1816, in an attempt to convey a poor traveller 
to his anxious family. The Piedmontese courier 
arrived at St. Bernard in a very stormy season, 
labouring to make his way to the little village of 
St. Pierre, in the valley beneath the mountain, 
where his wife and children dwelt. It was in vain 
that the monks attempted to check his resolution 
to reach his family. They at last gave him two 
guides, each of whom was accompanied by a dog, 
of which one was the remarkable creature whose 
services had been so valuable to mankind. De- 
scending from the convent, they were in an instant 
overwhelmed by two avalanches ; and the same 
common destruction awaited the family of the poor 
courier, who were toiling up the mountain in the 
hope to obtain some news of their expected friend. 
They all perished. 

A story is told of one of these dogs, which, hav- 
ing found a child unhurt whose mother had been 




68 NATURAL HISTORY. 

destroyed by an avalanche, induced the poor boy 
to mount upon his back, and thus carried him to 
the gate of the convent. The subject is represented 
in a French print. 

In looking back upon the few out of the many 
varieties of the dog which we have ah'eady noticed, 
we cannot avoid observing the extraordinary modi- 
fications of which this quadruped has become sus- 
ceptible. These modifications are so extensive, and 
have existed so long, that it is now impossible to 
decide which is the original breed. Buffbn at- 
tempted a theory of this nature, but it is evidently 
unsupported by facts. Almost every country in 
the world possesses its different kind of dog, and in 
each of these kinds there are essential differences 
of character produced by education. The Esqui- 
maux dog draws a sledge, the shepherd's dog 
guards a flock ; the mastiff protects a house, a dog 
very similar in nature worries a bull ; the Spanish 
bloodhound hunts the naked Indian to the death, 
while the dog of St. Bernard rescues the perishing 
man at the risk of his own life. The dog, certainly, 
has the greatest sympathies with man of all the 
race of quadrupeds ; and the nearer an animal ap- 
proaches us, and the more easily he comprehends 
us, the more are we enabled to modify his nature 
and form his character. What is true of a species 
is also true of a class. The quadruped is more 
easily modified— that is, the class is more suscepti* 
ble of instruction-^than the bird, the bird than the 
insect, the insect than the fish. The difference be* 
tween intelligence and instinct, the nice partition 
which divides these qualities, has formed the subject 
of infinite speculation. The qualities are certainly 



THE DOG. 69 

not one and the same, as some philosophers have 
maintained. With regard to the different posses- 
sion of the quaUties, the animal kingdom has been 
thus divided : 1. Animals endowed with intelligence 
and instinct, comprising all the vertehrated division^ 
since they possess a spino-cerebral nervous appa- 
ratus (the seat of intelligence), and a nervous sym- 
pathizing or ganglionic system (the seat of instinct) ; 
2. Animals endowed with instinct only, comprising 
all the invertebrated division, since they only pos- 
sess the ganglionic or sympathizing nervous sys- 
tem among all the species with visible nerves.* 
Of the vertehrated animals, those which most easily 
acquire habits from man are quadrupeds ; and of 
quadrupeds, those which are most easily modified 
are the species which belong to those united in 
groups, naturally by the social affection. The 
farther we descend in the scale of existence, the 
greater is the separation from man ; till at last ar- 
riving at the vegetable, we find a living substance 
capable of modification without any effort of its 
own will ; and thus, having only spontaneous incli- 
nation for heat, and light, and moisture, undergo- 
ing much greater changes from cultivation than 
animals, however docile. With regard to those 
animals in the highest scale next to man, the more 
artificial are their habits, the more are they modi- 
fied by the circumstances of their domestication. 
On the contrary, the more natural their habits, the 
fewer are the deviations from their specific charac- 
ter. The Esquimaux dog and the Dingo differ 
very slightly from the wolf, which probably is of 

♦ See the article " L'lnstinct," in " Nouveau Dictionnairo 
d'Histoire Naturelle," 2d edit. 



70 NATURAL HISTORY. 

the same original family. The petted spaniel could 
scarcely be recognised as belonging to the species. 

The senses of the higher quadrupeds, such as the 
dog and the horse, are the instruments by which 
man employs them for his use ; and he renders those 
senses more powerful, in proportion as he cultivates 
the faculties by which the senses are disciplined. 
Thus, the senses which are most called into ac- 
tion in the dog are those of smell and hearing. 
The compensation, if we may so express it, with 
which Nature balances her gifts, is very remarkable. 
The chamois, which dwells on the mountains, has a 
very long sight ; the rhinoceros, which inhabits the 
marshes, sees very keenly for a short distance : 
the weaker animals, such as rabbits and hares, have 
the most exquisite sense of hearing ; the beasts of 
prey have piercing eyes, but their ears are dull.* 
The force of one sense generally compensates for 
the weakness of another. Thus, dogs have not a 
very powerful sight (with the exception of the grey- 
hound, which does not smell keenly), but their smell, 
and generally their hearing, are exquisite. It is 
the perfection of each of these senses that renders 
dogs so valuable to man in procuring his food and 
guarding his property. 

Without attempting to explain the peculiar con- 
struction of the organ of smell (which would pre- 
suppose a knowledge of the meaning of anatomical 
terms), it may be mentioned, that the nasal organs 
(the nostrils) are most extensively evolved or un- 
folded wherever the sense of smell is the most ex- 
quisite. Blumenbach states, that in the head of a 

* See " Histoire des McEurs et de I'lnstinct cies Animaux, par 
J, J. Virey." P^ris, 1822. • 



THE DOG. 71 

North American Indian — a leader of his nation, who 
was executed at Philadelphia about fifty years ago 
— the internal nostrils were found of a most extra- 
ordinary size. The wonderful acuteness of smell 
possessed by these savages is recorded in all ac- 
counts of their manners. It is well known that 
the keenest-scented hounds have the largest nos- 
trils. 

The comparative quickness of hearing in dogs 
probably depends, in great measure, on the form of 
the external ear. Shakspeare has described the 
matchless hounds of Theseus as dogs whose 

" Heads are hung 
With ears that sweep away the morning dew." 

This was one of the characteristics of the old Eng- 
lish hound, whose hearing was very perfect, and 
whose sense of smell, also, was the most exquisite 
that can be imagined. M. Cabanis says, the ears 
of hounds, and other animals designed to hear low 
sounds (low, as opposed to loud), are either pendu- 
lous or very moveable, to compensate for their dif. 
ficulty in moving the head. 

We have mentioned that these exquisite senses 
are increased and called into action by discipline. 
The fox-hound will distinguish the scent of the fox 
he is pursuing from that of another fox who crosses 
his path ; the spaniel and terrier will track their mas- 
ters, by their scent, through a crowded city ; the 
watch-dog barks when no one else hears a footfalU 
Why is this ? These dogs have been accustomed, 
partly by nature andpartly by education, to regulate 
their senses by the exercise of attention ; to condense 
their faculties for the service in which they are en- 
gaged ; to direct their capabilities to the one object 



72 NATURAL HISTORY. 

which is necessary to be attained. They are gen- 
erally successful ; and their success offers a valu- 
able example to our higher faculties. 

Dogs are excellent judges of distance : they sel- 
dom fail in attempting to leap a ditch or a gate. 
We have seen a greyhound, in full chase of a hare 
which ran through a ditch, throw himself over the 
hedge to be ready for her as she passed out ; and 
the manoeuvre rarely failed of success. This must 
be considered an effect of reasoning, at any rate ; 
although we may not go quite so far as Ray, the 
great EngUsh naturalist, who says that dogs judge 
of distances by an innate operation of trigonometry. 
Dr. Thomas Brown, one of the most beautiful, as 
well as profound writers on Intellectual Philosophy, 
considers the existence of reasoning among many 
of the inferior animals to be as unquestionable as 
the instincts that mingle with it. Montaigne, the 
most accurate of observers, has recorded a singular 
instance of their faculty of judging of space : " I am 
struck with admiration at the performance, which 
is nevertheless very common, of those dogs that 
lead blind beggars in the country and in cities. I 
have taken notice how they have stopped at certain 
doors where they are wont to receive alms ; how 
they have avoided the encounter of coaches and 
carts, even in cases where they have had sufficient 
room to pass ; and I have seen them, by the trench 
of a walled town, forsake a plain and even path to 
take a worse, only to keep their masters farther from 
the ditch. How could a man have made this dog 
understand that it was his office to look to his mas- 
ter's safety only, and despise his own convenience 
to serve him? And how did he acquire the 



THE DOG. 73 

knowledge, except by a process of reasoning, when 
the path was broad enough for himself, that it was 
not so for the blind man?"* How could a man 
have made this dog understand ? Here is the real 
difficulty. Habit certainly does a great deal ; but 
then there must be a beginning of such experi- 
ments. 

In a work by Jean Faber {Exposition des Ani^ 
maux de la Nouvelle Espagne de Hernandez) there 
is a very interesting account of the blind beggars 
of Rome, who were led by their dogs from church 
to church in that city, and even to places outside 
of the city walls, such as the Basilica of St. Paul, 
on the road to Ostia, How does the animal so 
thoroughly comprehend where his master wishes to 
go ? Dr. Gall says that dogs " learn to understand 
not merely separate words or articulate sounds, 
but whole sentences expressing many ideas." Dr. 
Elliotson, the learned translator of Blumenbach's 
Physiology, quotes the following passage from 
Gall's Treatise on the Functions of the Brain, 
without expressing any doubt of the circumstance : 
<< I have often spoken intentionally of objects which 
might interest my dog, taking care not to mention 
his name, or make any intonation or gesture which 
might awaken his attention. He, however, show- 
ed no less pleasure or sorrow, as it might be ; and, 
indeed, manifested by his behaviour that he had 
perfectly understood the conversation which con- 
cerned him. I had taken a bitch from Vienna to 
Paris; in a very short time she comprehended 
French as well as German, of which I satisfied 
myself by repeating before her whole sentences in 
♦ Montaigne's Essays, translated by Cotton. 

G 



74 NATURAL HISTORY. 

both languages." We have heard an instance of 
this quickness in the comprehension of language 
which is very remarkable, A mongrel, between 
the shepherd's dog and terrier, a great favourite in 
a farmhouse, was standing by while his mistress 
was washing some of her children. Upon asking 
a boy whom she had just dressed to bring his sis- 
ter's clothes from the next room, he pouted and 
hesitated. " Oh, then," said the mother, " Mungo 
will fetch them. " She said this by way of reproach 
to the boy, for Mungo had not been accustomed to 
fetch and carry. But Mungo was intelligent and 
obedient ; and, without farther command, he brought 
the child's frock to his astonished mistress. This 
was an effort of imagination in Mungo, which dogs 
certainly possess in a considerable degree. He had 
often observed, doubtless, the business of dressing 
the children ; and the instant he was appealed to, 
he imagined what his mistress wanted. Every one 
knows the anxiety which dogs feel to go out with 
their masters, if they have been accustomed so to 
do. A dog will often anticipate the journey of his 
owner ; and, guessing the road he means to take, 
steal away to a considerable distance on that road 
to avoid being detained at home. We have re- 
peatedly seen this circumstance. It is distinctly 
an effort of the imagination, if, indeed, it be not an 
inference of reasoning. 

The shying of horses has been considered by 
some as a peculiar defect of sight ; at any rate, it 
is an effect of some false terror. Dogs fill their 
imagination with vain fears in the same manner. 
We have been informed by an intelligent sports, 
mun, that, returning home in the dusk with his 



THE DOG. 75 

pointer, the dog all at once skulked behind him, 
and refused to advance, in spite of his master's 
threats. Upon looking towards the horizon before 
him, the sportsman descried what he at first took 
for a tall man, wuth a broad hat, extended arms, 
and a body as thin as a lath. This object, which 
produced the dog's alarm, was a gigantic thistle, 
which the gray of the twilight had magnified into 
fearful dimensions. The credulous once believed 
that dogs and horses could see spirits, by their of- 
ten starting without any apparent cause. Such in- 
stances as this of the thistle might have given rise 
to the superstition. 

Linnaeus has made it a characteristic of dogs that 
" they bark at beggars :" but beggars are ragged, 
and sometimes have that look of wildness which 
squalid poverty produces ; and then the imagina- 
tion of the dog sees, in the poor mendicant, a rob- 
ber of his master's house, or one who will be cruel 
to himself; and he expresses his own fears by a bark. 
A dog is thus valuable for watching property, in 
proportion to the ease with which he is alarmed. 
One of the greatest terrors of a domesticated dog 
is a naked man, because this is an unaccustomed 
object. The sense of fear is said to be so great in 
this situation, that the fiercest dog will not even 
bark. A tanyard at Kilmarnock, in Ayrshire, 
was a few years ago extensively robbed by a thief, 
who took this method to overcome the courage of 
a powerful Newfoundland dog, who had long pro. 
tected a considerable property. The terror which 
the dog felt at the naked thief was altogether ima- 
ginary ; for the naked man was less capable of re- 
sisting the attack of the dog than if he had been 



76 NATURAL HISTORY. 

clothed. But then the dog had no support in his 
experience. His memory of the past did not come 
to the aid of that faculty which saw an unknown 
danger in the future. 

The faculties of quadrupeds, like those of men, 
are, of course, mixed in their operation. The dog, 
who watches by his master's grave, and is not 
tempted away by the caresses of the living, employs 
both his memory and his imagination in this act of 
affection. In the year 1827, there was a dog con- 
stantly to be seen in St. Bride's Churchyard, Fleet- 
street, which for two years had refused to leave 
the place where his master was buried. He did 
not appear miserable ; he evidently recollected 
their old companionship, and he imagined that their 
friendship would again be renewed. The inhabi- 
tants of the houses around the church daily fed the 
poor creature, and the sexton built him a little ken- 
nel. But he never would quit the spot ; and there 
he died. 

The instances of devoted affection of dogs to 
their masters are too numerous and too well known 
to require that they should be here repeated. It 
is a fortunate circumstance connected with this 
natural attachment of dogs to mankind, that in 
general they are only considered valuable during 
their lives ; and their value consists in the quali- 
ties which have a tendency to make men gentle 
and affectionate towards them in return. But this 
reciprocal friendship is not universal. The na- 
tives on the coast of Guinea and those of the South 
Sea Islands eat dog's flesh ; they are said to be 
dog-butchers in China ; and in Finmark, and in 
other parts of Lapland, dogs are bred, fattened, and 
slaughtered for their hides. 



THE DOG. 77 

The faculty by which animals can communicate 
their ideas to each other is very striking ; in dogs 
it is particularly remarkable. There are many 
curious anecdotes recorded illustrative of this fac- 
ulty. 

The following story, which illustrates in a sin- 
gular manner the communication of ideas between 
dogs, was told by a clergyman as an authentic 
anecdote : A surgeon of Leeds, walking in the 
suburbs of that town, found a little spaniel who had 
been lamed. He carried the poor animal home, 
bandaged up his leg, and, after two or three days, 
turned him out. The dog returned to the surgeon's 
house every morning till his leg was perfectly well. 
At the end of several months the spaniel again pre- 
sented himself, in company with another dog, which 
had also been lamed ; and he intimated, as well as 
piteous and intelligent looks could intimate, that he 
desired the same kind assistance to be rendered 
to his friend as had been bestowed upon himself. 
A similar circumstance is stated to have occurred 
to Moraut, a celebrated French surgeon. 

What is generally called the docility of dogs — 
the faculty of being taught tricks contrary to their 
natures, is curious, but far from pleasing : the per- 
fection is generally attained by cruelty. It is more 
agreeable to witness a natural docility ; such as 
that of the shepherd's dog, who learns to distinguish 
every sheep of a large flock ; and who will drive 
them through the crowded streets with a foresight 
perfectly wonderful. Some of the finest dogs in 
the world are those which watch the Merino sheep 
upon the Spanish mountains. They wear large 
collars with spikes, to protect them from the at- 
G2 



78 NATURAL HISTORY. 

tacks of the wolves ; and they conduct their flocks 
with a gentleness which is only equalled by their 
courage. When they return to the folds, the dogs 
bring up the stragglers without violence ; and the 
man walks at their head in the true pastoral style so 
beautifully described in the Psalms : " The Lord is 
my shepherd ; I shall not want. He maketh me 
lie down in green pastures ; he leadeth me beside 
the still waters." 

The dog, as well as most other animals, indicates 
his different feelings by different tones of his voice ; 
and thus the shepherd's dog has a command over 
his flock without using positive violence. Their 
tones are so marked that they are recognised as 
expressive of anger or fear by other animals. The 
horse knows from the bark of a dog when he may 
expect an attack upon his heels. 

The practice of teaching dogs tricks is as old as 
the Romans. Montaigne has quoted from Plutarch 
the following account of a wonderful dog of an- 
tiquity : " Plutarch says he saw a dog at Rome, at 
the theatre of Marcellus, which performed most ex. 
traordinary feats, taking his part in a farce which 
was played before the Emperor Vespasian. Among 
other things, he counterfeited himself dead, after 
having feigned to eat a certain drug, by swallowing 
a piece of bread. At first he began to tremble 
and stagger, as if he were astonished; and at 
length, stretching himself out stiff as if he had 
been dead, he suffered himself to be drawn and 
dragged from place to place, as it was his part to 
do ; but afterward, when he knew it to be time, he 
began first gently to stir, as if newly awaked out 
of some profound sleep, and, lifting up his head, 



THE DOG. 79 

looked about him after such a manner as aston- 
ished all the spectators." 

We have alluded to those exhibitions of remarka 
ble attachment between animals of opposite natures, 
which are sometimes so interesting in menageries. 
These attachments are more frequent with dogs than 
with other animals, probably because they are more 
capable of attachment. The friendship between 
dogs and horses is too common to attract notice ; 
but every now and then we hear of an attachment 
where we might have expected an antipathy. Dr. 
Fleming, in his interesting book, " The Philosophy 
of Zoology," quotes from Montague's supplement 
to his Ornithological Dictionary the following ac- 
count of a singular friendship which subsisted be- 
tween a China goose and a pointer which had killed 
the gander. " Ponto (for that was the dog's name) 
was most severely punished for the misdemeanour, 
and had the dead bird tied to his neck. The soli- 
tary goose became extremely distressed for the loss 
of her partner and only companion ; and, probably, 
having been attracted to the dog's kennel by the 
sight of her dead mate, she seemed determined to 
persecute Ponto by her constant attendance and 
continual vociferations ; but, after a little time, a 
strict amity and friendship subsisted between these 
incongruous animals. They fed out of the same 
trough, lived under the same roof, and in the same 
straw bed kept each other warm; and when the 
dog was taken to the field, the inharmonious lam- 
entations of the goose for the absence of her friend 
were incessant." 

The stories of attachment between lions and dogs 
are well authenticated; and in several instances 



80 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



the stronger animal has afforded a protection to his 
trembling victim which has ripened into friendship. 
In a well. regulated travelling menagerie belonging 
to a person named Atkins, we saw, in the autumn 
of 1828, a spaniel-bitch affording sustenance to a 
young tiger who was sick and not expected to live, 
and whom she evidently tended with affectionate 
solicitude. The following cut is a representation 
of this singular pair. 




We cannot quit the subject of dogs without ad- 
verting to that lamentable circumstance, their oc- 
casional madness. This disease is not common to 
dogs in all climates. According to Mr. Barrow, 
canine madness is unknown in South Africa, al- 
though this assertion has been disproved within 



THE DOG. 81 

these few years,* Other temporary diseases are 
oftentimes mistaken for this fearful malady ; and 
we therefore subjoin the symptoms of hydrophobia, 
as described by MM. Chaussier and Orfila, who 
have written a scientific work on this disorder : 

" A dog at the commencement of madness is sick, 
languishing, and more dull than usual. He seeks 
obscurity, remains in a corner, does not bark, but 
growls continually at strangers, and, without any 
apparent cause, refuses to eat or drink. His gait 
is unsteady, nearly resembling that of a man almost 
asleep. At the end of three or four days he aban- 
dons his dwelling, roving continually in every di- 
rection : he walks or runs as if tipsy, and frequent- 
ly falls. His hair is bristled up ; his eyes haggard, 
fixed, and sparkling ; his head hangs down ; his 
mouth is open and full of frothy slaver ; his tongue 
hangs out ; and his tail between his legs. He has 
for the most part, but not always, a horror of wa- 
ter, the sight of which seems generally to redouble 
his sufferings. He experiences from time to time 
transports of fury, and endeavours to bite every 
object which presents itself, not even excepting his 
master, whom, indeed, he begins not to recognise. 
Light and lively colours greatly increase his rage. 
At the end of thirty or thirty-six hours he dies of 
convulsions." It has also been stated as addition- 
al symptoms of canine madness, that the animal, if 
bitten, is at first incessantly employed in scratch- 
ing or gnawing the wound ; that the eye becomes 
bloodshotten, accompanied with a slight squinting ; 
that sometimes a depraved appetite exists, shavings, 

* A case of hydrophobia is recorded by Dr. Wentworth m 
the Cape Town Gazette. 



82 NATURAL HISTORY, 

straw, thread, hair, &c., having been found in the 
stomach on dissection ; and also that in the dog 
there is no dread of water, as he frequently endeav- 
ours to drink, but is unable to swallow in conse- 
quence of a paralysis of the muscles of the throat. 
The disorder, however, is yet but very imperfect- 
ly understood, and there are many conflicting opin- 
ions on the subject. To observe and record facts 
is the surest mode of increasing our knowledge of 
the subject, and may, perhaps, eventually lead to the 
discovery of an antidote or a preventive of this ter- 
rible malady. At present, after various remedies 
have been tried in vain, it seems agreed that cut- 
ting or burning out the bitten part is the only one 
to be relied on. 

The domestic dog is scientifically distinguished 
from the other varieties of the species Canis by 
having its tail curved upward. Whenever there 
is white on any part of the tail of the domestic 
dog, the tip is invariably white. 

The dog, whelped with his eyes closed, opens 
them on the tenth or twelfth day. His teeth begin 
to change in the fourth month. His growth ter- 
minates at two years, and he is old at fiwe. His 
life rarely exceeds twenty years. The female goes 
with young sixty-three days. 



THE WOLF. 



83 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE WOLF, THE JACKAL, AND THE FOX. 




The Wolf, Penkant Canis Lupus, Linn^us. 

In the garden of the Zoological Society there 
are three young wolves, a pair of which came from 
Normandy. The height of the specimen from 
which the above representation was taken was 
twenty-six inches in September, 1828. These an- 
imals are here confined in a manner which enables 
the observer to judge better of their habits than in 
the ordinary dens of the menageries. They have 
a roomy kennel to feed and sleep in ; and a sort of 
outer cage, made of strong bars of iron rising from 
the ground, and forming an arch, sufficiently large 
to enable them to chase each other about with con- 



I 



84 NATURAL HISTORY. 

siderable freedom : their play is, however, ex- 
tremely rough, and they often bite with great vi- 
olence. Upon the whole, they appear good-tem- 
pered. We observed a gentleman somewhat im- 
prudently thrust his hand into the cage, upon which 
they all licked it, fawning like dogs. 

The essential character of the common wolf con- 
sists in a straight tail ; the hide of a grayish yel- 
low, with a black oblique stripe on the fore-legs of 
those which are full grown ; the eyes oblique. The 
average height of the wolf is about two feet six 
inches before, and two feet four inches behind ; 
and the length of the body, from the tip of the muz- 
zle to the beginning of the tail, three feet eight 
inches. The cubs of the wolf are born with their 
eyes shut ; the female goes with young sixty-three 
days, and has eight or nine at a litter, in these 
respects exactly resembling the dog.* The average 
duration of their life is from fifteen to twenty years. 

The gentleness of wolves in confinement seldom 

continues after they are full grown ; they generally 

appear to acquire a fear instead of a love of man, 

which manifests itself in a morose and vindictive 

impatience. The cowardly ferocity of their natures 

is with difficulty restrained by discipline ; they are 

not to be trusted. And yet there are instances of 

wolves having been domesticated to such an extent 

as to exhibit the greatest attachment to man ; as 

great as can be shown by a dog. M. F. Cuvier 

gives a very interesting account of a tame wolf, 

which had all the obedience towards, and affection 

* Tne period of gestation in the wolf is inaccurately stated 
in Goldsmith's " Animated Nature ;" and from the supposed differ- 
ence in this particular between the dog and the wolf, an infer- 
ence is drawn that they are essentially a different epecies. 



THE WOLF. 85 

for, his master that the most sagacious and gentle 
of domestic dogs could possibly evince. He was 
brought up in the same manner as a puppy, and 
continued with his original owner till he was full 
grown. He was then presented to the menagerie 
at Paris. For many weeks he was quite disconso- 
late at the separation from his master, who had 
been obliged to travel ; he would scarcely take any 
food, and was indifferent to his keepers. At length 
he became attached to those about him, and he 
seemed to have forgotten his old affections. His 
master returned after an absence of eighteen 
months ; the wolf heard his voice amid the crowd 
in the gardens of the menagerie, and, being set at 
liberty, displayed the most violent joy. Again was 
he separated from his friend, and again was his 
grief as extreme as on the first occasion. After 
three years' absence, his master once more returned. 
It was evening, and the wolf's den was shut up 
from any external observation ; yet the instant the 
man's voice was heard, the faithful animal set up 
the most anxious cries ; and the door of his cage 
being opened, he rushed towards his friend, leaped 
upon his shoulders, licked his face, and threatened 
to bite his keepers when they attempted to separate 
them. When the man left him, he fell sick, and 
refused all food ; and from the time of his recovery, 
which was long very doubtful, it was always dan- 
gerous for a stranger to approach him. He ap- 
peared as if he scorned any new friendships. 

This is a very remarkable, and, as far as we 

know, a solitary instance of the wolf possessing the 

generous, constant, unshaken attachment of the dog 

to any individual of the human species. And yet 

H 



86 NATtrHAL HISTORY. 

the paucity of these instances may be attributed to 
our imperfect knowledge of the history of the do- 
mestication of the dog tribe. In the individual ani- 
mal described by M. F. Cuvier, the progress was 
very clear from a state of savage fierceness to a 
state of docility and extraordinary sensibility. This 
wolf was taken young ; brought up with human 
beings ; cherished by one in particular ; never suf- 
fered to have his ferocity excited by a want of 
food ; and supplied with every necessary, as well 
as caressed, by the person with whom he had 
especially become familiar. It is very rarely that 
such an experiment can be tried ; for the inhabi- 
tants of Europe, for the last thousand years at least, 
have been labouring with unceasing anxiety to ex- 
tirpate the whole race of wolves. The Esquimaux 
dogs, which we have described, are probably wolves 
in a state of domestication ; but neither the date of 
their domestication, nor the manner in which it has 
been effected, could be satisfactorily determined^ 
even if the fact of the identity of the species were 
completely established. That there is an essential 
difference in the characters, though little or none 
in the physical structures of wolves, properly so 
called, and of dogs in the wildest state (that is, in 
the state in which they most nearly resemble 
wolves), is beyond a doubt. They are natural 
foes : the Esquimaux dogs set up a fearful howl at 
the approach of a wolf to their huts ; and yet, in 
their outward appearance, these animals are ex- 
ceedingly alike. Captain Parry, in the Journal of 
his Second Voyage, says, "a flock of thirteen 
wolves, the first yet seen, crossed the ice in the 
bay from the direction of the huts, and passed near 



THE WOLF. 87 

the ships. These animals, as we afterward learned 
had accompanied, or closely followed the Esqui 
maux on their journey to the island the preceding 
day ; and they proved to us the most troublesome 
part of their suite. They so much resemble the 
Esquimaux dogs, that, had it not been for some 
doubt among the officers who had seen them 
whether they were so or not, and the consequent 
fear of doing these poor people an irreparable in- 
jury, we might have killed most of them the same 
evening, for they came boldly to look for food with- 
in a few yards of the Fury, and remained there for 
some time." Again he says in his journal five 
days after, " these animals were so hungry and 
fearless as to take away some of the Esquimaux 
dogs in a snow house near the Hecla's stern, though 
the men were at the time within a few yards of 
them." Thus we see that there is an essential 
difference of character between the Esquimaux 
dog and wolf, which has rendered the one the natu- 
ral enemy of the other, although their physical re- 
semblance be so close as to present no essential 
variation to an ordinary observer. This difference 
of character is probably to be found, in a great de- 
gree, in the effect of hereditary habit. We have 
other instances of the disposition which wolves 
have to make the dog their prey. Captain Parry, 
in a subsequent passage of the same journal, men- 
tions that a Newfoundland dog, belonging to one of 
the discovery ships, being enticed to play with some 
wolves who were prowling upon the ice, would 
have been carried off by them had not the sailors 
gon6 in a body to his rescue. In Broke's Travels 
we find the following curious circumstances re- 



88 NATURAL HISTORY. 

corded as happening in the north of Sweden : " I 
observed, on setting out from Sormjole, the last post, 
that the peasant who drove my sledge was armed 
with a cutlass ; and, on inquiring the reason, was 
told that the day preceding, while he was passing in 
his sledge the part of the forest we were then in, 
he had encountered a wolf, which was so daring 
that it actually sprung over the hinder part of the 
sledge he was driving, and attempted to carry off 
a small dog which was sitting behind him. During 
my journey from Tornea to Stockholm, I heard 
everywhere of the ravages committed by wolves, 
not upon the human species or the cattle, but 
chiefly upon the peasants' dogs, considerable num- 
bers of which had been devoured. I was told that 
these were the favourite prey of this animal ; and 
that, in order to seize upon them with the greater 
ease, it puts itself into a crouching posture, and 
begins to play several antic tricks to attract the 
attention of the poor dog, which, caught by these 
seeming demonstrations of friendship, and fancying 
it to be one of his own species from the similarity, 
advances towards it to join in the gambols, and is 
carried off* by its treacherous enemy. Several peas- 
ants that I conversed with mentioned their having 
been eyewitnesses of this circumstance." Nor is 
the animosity of the dog to the wolf less than that 
of the wolf to the dog. Associated in packs and 
encouraged by men, dogs will chase the wolf with 
the most daring ardour, regardless of his greater 
physical strength ; and, probably, without the aid 
of dogs, they would never have been exterminated. 
The wolf is peculiarly an inhabitant of Europe, 
and he still continues so in the more northern re- 



THE WOLF. 89 

gions, and in those countries where dense forests 
are not yet cleared. They once abounded in Eng- 
land ; and it is manifest that the terror which 
they produced was not a rare circumstance, but 
spread itself throughout all the land, and became a 
part of the habitual thoughts of the people. The 
month which corresponds with our January was, at 
one period, called, by the Anglo-Saxons " Wolf- 
monat ;" and the reason for this is thus explained 
by an old writer on British antiquities. " The 
moneth which we now call January they called 
' Wolf monat,' to wit, Wolf moneth, because people 
are wont always in that moneth to be more in dan- 
ger to be devoured of wolves, than in any season 
els of the yeare ; for that, through the extremity 
of cold- and snow, those ravenous creatures could 
not find of other beasts sufficient to feed upon."* 
The natural terror which the wolves inspired among 
the scattered inhabitants of the half-cultivated lands 
of England was increased by their habitual super- 
stitions. The same author, in his chapter " on the 
Antiquitie and Proprietie of the ancient English 
tongue," says, " Were-wulf : this name remaineth 
still known in the Teutonic, and is as much to say 
as man- wolf, the Greek expressing the very like in 
Lycanthropos. The were-wolves are certain sor- 
cerers, who, having anointed their bodies with an 
ointment which they make by the instinct of the 
devil, and putting on a certain enchanted girdel, do 
not only unto the view of others seem as wolves, 
but to their own thinking have both the shape and 

* Verstegan's ** Restitution of decayed Intelligence in Anti- 
quities concerning the most noble and renowned English nation." 
Antwerp, 1605. 

H 2 



90 NATURAL HISTORY. 

nature of wolves, so long as they weare the said 
girdel ; and they do dispose themselves as very 
wolves in wurrying and killing, and waste of hu- 
man creatures." The Germans had a similar su- 
perstition ; and as late as 1589, a man was execu- 
ted in the Netherlands under the charge of being 
a were-wulf. This pretended sorcerer, assuming 
one of the most formidable shapes of mischief, was 
called, in France, loup-garou. It is said that the 
wolf, when it has once tasted human flesh, gives it 
the preference over ail other animal food ; and 
from this cause it probably arose that, for many 
centuries of ignorance, when the influence of evil 
spirits was universally believed, and the powers of 
witchcraft was not doubted even by the learned, a 
raging wolf, devouring everything in his way — the 
sheep in its fold and the child in its cottage bed, 
and even digging up newly-buried bodies from their 
graves — should be supposed to be possessed with 
some demon more fearful than its own insatiate ap- 
petites. It is to the terror, also, which the wolf 
inspired, that we are to ascribe the fact of kings 
and rulers, in a barbarous age, feeling proud of 
bearing the name of this animal as an attribute of 
courage and ferocity. Brute power was then con- 
sidered the highest distinction of man ; and the 
sentiment was not mitigated by those refinements 
of modern life which conceal, but do not destroy it. 
We thus find among the Anglo-Saxon kings and 
great men, ^thelwulf, the noble wolf; Berth wulf, 
the illustrious wolf; Eadwulf, the prosperous wolf; 
Ealdwulf, the old wolf. 

In the southern and temperate countries of Eu- 
rope wolves are now rarely found. In severe win- 



THE WOLF. 91 

ters they sometimes make their appearance in 
France and Germany. In Spain, the dogs who 
watch the flocks wear spiked collars, as we have 
before mentioned, to protect them from the occa- 
sional incursions of the enemy. We must refer to 
the accounts of travellers in the northern parts of 
Europe and of America for any notice of the ap- 
pearance of these animals in considerable numbers. 
Wolves are, in those northern regions, very formi- 
dable creatures, sometimes measuring six feet from 
the muzzle to the end of the tail.* 

Their prevailing colour is light, with a silvery 
black stripe extending from the upper part of the 
neck along the back. Mr. Sabine considers it prob- 
able, that the loss of colour in the white wolves, 
in the vicinity of the Arctic Seas, is occasioned by 
the severity of the winter seasons ; though the 
change does not occur in all cases. Desmarest, 
though he admits this change, notices the white 
wolf as a variety belonging to the description of 
animals called Alhinoes. 

The pecuUar whiteness of the hair or feathers 
to which alhinoes are subject, and which occurs 
not only in quadrupeds and birds, but in the human 
race, is occasioned by a defect in the colouring mat- 
ter of these coverings of the skin, and is always 
connected with a defect in sight, which arises from 
the deficiency in the eye of what is called the mu- 
cous pigment. Blumenbach thinks that this defi- 
ciency is hereditary in some of the mammalia, so 
as to form a constant breed of white animals, as 
in the rabbit, mouse, and horse ; and that, in the 
same way, the ferret, whose white skin and red 
glassy eyes are well known, is descended from the 
* Brokers Travels. 



92 NATURAL HISTORY. 

polecat.* The subject of albinoes is intimately con- 
nected with some curious facts which have been 
recently investigated ; and which completely prove 
the intimate connexion between, or, rather, identity 
of, that substance which gives colour to the skin 
and hair, and that which regulates the ability of the 
animal to endure a greater or less degree of light. 
From a series of experiments instituted to ascer- 
tain the power of the sun's rays, it has been estab- 
lished by Sir Everard Home, that although the ab- 
solute heat, in consequence of the absorption of the 
rays, is greater from a black surface, yet the power 
of the rays to scorch the skin is thus destroyed ; 
according to Sir Humphrey Davy, by being con- 
verted into sensible heat by the absorption. It is 
thus that the negro has a provision for the defence 
of his skin while living within the tropics ; and in 
the same manner, his eye, which is exposed to strong 
light, has the mucous pigment darker than that of 
the European.*!" In all quadrupeds which look up- 
ward, as the monkey ; in birds exposed to the 
sun's rays ; and in fishes which lie upon the surface 
of the ocean, this pigment is dark. In ruminating 
animals, which look downward, and in nocturnal 
animals, such as the cat, it is light ; in the owl, it is 
entirely absent. In the Supplement recently pub- 
lished to his Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, 
Sir Everard Home has collected some farther 
facts on this interesting subject. He says that the 
" rete mucosum,^^ a kind of pigment which lines the 
cuticle upon the surface of the body, and consti- 
tutes the tubular cavity that forms hair, is precise- 

* Blumenbach's Comparative Anatomy, translated by Law 
rence and Coulson. 

t Home's Lectures on Comparative Anatomy vol iii. 



THE WOLF. 93 

ly the same substance as that upon which the reti- 
na of the eye is spread (which we have called the 
mucous pigment) ; and thus, being acted upon by 
the same circumstances, when the hair becomes 
gray, the person can only see with a weak hght. 
Baron Larrey mentioned to Sir Everard Home the 
case of a man who had been confined at Brest thir- 
ty-three years in a subterraneous prison. During 
the day, he was completely blind, and only saw ob- 
jects in the dark. His hair was absolutely blanch- 
ed ; and when it first became white, the pigment of 
his eyes had undergone the same change. With 
regard to the subject which led us to these curious 
facts — the white animals of the most northern cli- 
mates — Sir Everard Home unhesitatingly says, that 
the shedding of the hair and feathers in the Arctic 
regions, during the six months in which they are 
not visited by the sun, is accompanied by the absence 
of the " nigrum pigmentum^^ (the black pigment), 
by which the animals and birds are fitted to see 
with the weak light afforded them.* With these 
facts before us, it may reasonably be believed that 
many of the white animals of the Arctic regions 
are, during a portion of the year, when the cold is 
intense and the days are dark, what are called Al- 
binoes ; that is, that with the change of the colour 
of their hair, the mucous pigment of the eye also 
changes colour ; or, in other words, that the black 
pigment is absent when the hair periodically be- 
comes white. We have already seen how this 
whiteness of the fur enables the animal to bear the 
diminished temperature, without such a diminution 
of the warmth of his body as would deprive him 
* Supplement to Lectures, vol. v., p. 282, 1828. 



94 NATURAL mSTORY. 

of his physical powers ; and upon the same beau- 
tiful principle of arrangement by an all-wise Prov- 
idence, which so nicely adjusts the senses and facul- 
ties of animals to the situations in which they are 
placed, the deficiency of the black pigment of the 
eye enables some quadrupeds to see distinctly in 
the faint light of the long Arctic winter. Upon 
this principle, M. Desmarest's description of the 
white wolf, " an animal affected with the albino dis- 
ease," is an incorrect one. He is an animal the 
colour of whose fur, as well as the pigment of whose 
eye, undergoes a change to fit him for the very ex- 
traordinary changes of heat and light he is expo- 
sed to ; and which change of the fur and the eye 
prevents him utterly perishing during that inca- 
pacity to procure his food which extreme cold and 
darkness would otherwise bring upon him. It is 
remarkable, that these extraordinary adaptations 
of the body to climate are confined to the inferior 
animals. Man is not affected by them to anything 
like the same extent ; for the colour of the negro's 
skin is unvarying in certain latitudes, and the albi- 
noes of the human race are so from the effect of 
disease. We may conclude, from this circum- 
stance, that man, in the cases of adaptation to cli- 
mate, as in all other cases, is left to derive his pro- 
tection against physical evils from the exercise of 
his own reason. The poor Esquimaux, during 
their intense winters, clothe themselves with thick 
furs, shut themselves up in a snow hut (the warm- 
est of coverings from the external air), make fires, 
and obtain light from oil. Man, therefore, has a 
defence, in his superior intelligence, against the 
rigours of climate, even in the most exposed situ. 



THE WOLF. 95 

ations. He is left to the unaided care of this in- 
telligence, without that special intervention of Prov- 
idence, which makes such arrangements for the 
preservation of the inferior animals as shall come 
to the aid of their instinct, and stand in the place 
of those comforts which may be obtained by the 
higher faculties of the human race. Man, for in- 
stance, is the only animal that can produce artifi- 
cial light and heat. He makes a fire in the woods, 
and the monkeys will warm themselves at it ; but 
no monkey ever yet succeeded in kindling a fire 
himself. As man advances in civilization, these 
broad distinctions may be overlooked in the elabo- 
rate contrivances by which he heaps up every com- 
fort and luxury around him ; by manufactures and 
commerce ensuring the possession of them, in va- 
rious degrees, to all the human race. But the abil- 
ity to construct a steam-engine, and the knowledge 
which shows how to kindle the fuel which sets that 
machine in motion, are equally results of the supe- 
rior intellect of man, as distinguished from the fac- 
ulties of the creatures beneath him. "Consider 
the lilies of the field how they grow ; they toil not, 
neither do they spin." The lilies of the field de- 
rive their exceeding beauty, without an effort, from 
the hand of the God of Nature ; but the same God 
ordains the toiling and spinning for man, to enable 
him to preserve that place in the creation to which 
he is destined — the head of all beings which inhabit 
this earth — by the constant and progressive exer- 
cise of his reasoning faculties, and by the employ- 
ment of that knowledge which, from the accumu- 
lated experience of past generations, constitutes 
the power of civilization. 



96 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



In the southern states of America, according to 
Mr. Warden, the Black Wolf is found, A black 
wolf was taken in the Missouri territory by a par- 
ty engaged in Major Long's expedition from Pitts- 
burg to the Rocky Mountains ; and Mr. Say, who 
accompanied that expedition, has described it un- 
der the name of Canis nuhilis, or Clouded Wolf, 
In the Menagerie of the Tower of London there 
is at present a pair of wolves, taken in America, 
and presented by the Hudson's Bay Company, 
whose hair is of that mottled or clouded colour, 
formed of various shades of black, gray, or white, 
which determined Mr. Say in his choice of a name 
for the variety. 




The Clouded Wolf. Canis nttbilus, Say. 



THE WOLF, 97 

These animals are larger and stronger than the 
common wolf; of a fierce aspect, but, in a consid- 
erable degree, without that peculiar expression — 
that sinister look of apprehension, united with fe- 
rocity — which usually characterizes the wolf spe- 
cies. Their tail is shorter than that of the com- 
mon wolf, and their ears are remarkably short. 
These individual animals are extremely voracious ; 
and their natural fierceness has not been in the 
slightest degree changed by confinement. The 
head of the American wolf, generally, is larger 
than that of the European ; the muzzle is rounder ; 
and his expression has less of that character which 
is expressed by the common word slinking. 

Of the habits of the wolves of America, in which 
part of the world there are several varieties, we 
have now very accurate descriptions by intelligent 
and daring travellers. From those narratives we 
may form some tolerable idea of the pest which 
formerly existed in Enganld, before their extir- 
pation. During the arduous journeys of Captain 
Franklin to the shores of the Polar Sea, he and his 
companions were often obliged to dispute their 
scanty food with the prowling wolves of those in- 
clement regions. On one occasion, when they had 
captured a moose-deer and had buried a part of the 
body, the wolves absolutely dug it out from their 
very feet, and devoured it, while the weary men 
were sleeping. On another occasion, when the 
travellers had killed a deer, they saw, by the flashes 
of the Aurora Boreahs, eight wolves waiting around 
for their share of the prey ; and the intense howling 
of the ferocious animals, and the cracking of the 
ice by which they were surrounded, prevented them 



98 NATURAL HISTORY. 

from sleeping even if they had dared. But the 
wolves were sometimes caterers for the hungry 
wanderers in these dreary regions. When a group 
of wolves and a flight of crows were discovered, the 
travellers knew that there was a carcass to be divi- 
ded ; and they sometimes succeeded in obtaining a 
share of the prey, if it had been recently killed. 
Even the wolves have a fear of man ; and they 
would fly before the little band without attempting 
resistance. The following anecdote is full of in- 
terest : " Dr. Richardson, having the first watch, 
had gone to the summit of the hill, and remain- 
ed seated, contemplating the river that washed the 
precipice under his feet, long after dusk had hid- 
den distant objects from his view. His thoughts 
were, perhaps, far distant from the surrounding 
scenery, when he was roused by an indistinct noise 
behind him ; and, on looking round, perceived that 
nine white wolves had ranged themselves in form 
of a crescent, and were advancing, apparently with 
the intention of driving him into the river. On 
his rising up, they halted ; and when he advanced, 
they made way for his passage down to the tents." 
This circumstance happened when the weather was 
sultry. The formation of a crescent is the mode 
generally adopted by a pack of wolves to prevent 
the escape of any animal which they chase. 

The following passage, from the same interesting 
work, shows the extreme cunning of the wolves in 
the pursuit of a creature of superior speed : " So 
much snow had fallen on the night of the 24th, that 
the track we intended to follow was completely 
covered ; and our march to-day was very fatiguing. 
We passed the remains of two red deer, lying at the 



THE WOLF. 99 

bases of perpendicular cliffs, from the summits of 
which they had probably been forced by the wolves. 
These voracious animals, who are inferior in speed 
to the moose or red deer, are said frequently to have 
recourse to this expedient in places where extensive 
fiains are bounded by precipitous cliffs. While the 
deer are quietly grazing, the wolves assemble in 
great numbers ; and forming a crescent, creep slow- 
ly towards the herd, so as not to alarm them much 
at first ; but when they perceive that they have fair- 
ly hemmed in the unsuspecting creatures, and cut 
off their retreat across the plain, they move more 
quickly, and with hideous yells terrify their prey, 
and urge them to flight by the only open way, which 
is towards the precipice ; appearing to know that, 
when the herd is once at full speed, it is easily driv- 
en over the cliff; the rearmost urging on those that 
are before. The wolves then descend at their leis- 
ure, and feast on the mangled carcasses." 

Ferocious as the wolf of all countries is in the 
chase of weaker animals, he is ever extremely ap. 
prehensive for his own safety. In North America^ 
a bladder hung upon a pole, and blown about by the 
wind, will deter him from molesting the numerous 
herds of buffaloes. He is in continual dread of 
being entrapped to his destruction. He will always 
attack a reindeer when loose ; but if the animal is 
tied to a stake, he fears to approach, considering 
that a pitfall is near, and that the deer is placed 
there to entice him to it. The Esquimaux, how. 
ever, often take him in a trap made of ice, at one 
end of which is a door of the same abundant ma- 
terial, fitted to slide up and down in a groove ; to 
the upper part of this door a line is attached, and, 



100 NATURAL HISTORY. 

passing over the roof, is let down into the trap at 
the inner end, and there held by a peg of ice in the 
ground. Over the peg the bait is fastened ; and 
the whole machinery is concealed by a false roof. 
Of course, when the bait is removed, the line slips 
off the peg, and the door comes down. This con- 
trivance is quite in character with the surrounding 
scenery ; and thus the wolf is deceived, in spite of 
his habitual caution. Two were taken at Winter 
Island in this manner, at the time of Captain Parry's 
second voyage. The Indians in the neighbourhood 
of Lake Winnipic, which is the reservoir of several 
large rivers, and discharges itself by the River Nel« 
son into Hudson's Bay, were, till a very recent 
period, principally employed in trapping wolves. 
They were accustomed to make tallow from their 
fat, and prepare their skins to exchange with the 
traders from Montreal. The dealers in fur, asso- 
ciated into a company in Canada, exported to Eng- 
land in one year (1798) wolf-skins to the number 
of three thousand eight hundred. As civilization 
has advanced in these provinces, the Indians, and 
the beasts of the forests and rivers, have been driven 
farther and farther into the wilds onward to the 
coldest regions. But the trade in furs of North 
America is still very considerable, and is now prin- 
cipally in the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
Some idea of the destruction of animal life, to pro- 
vide for the comforts and luxuries of Europeans, 
may be formed from the statement which we gather 
in Captain Franklin's Narrative of his Journey : 
that, in 1822, the Hudson's Bay Company imported 
3000 skins of the black bear, 60,000 of the pine 
marten, 1800 of the fisher (a species of sable), 4600 



THE WOLF. 101 

of the mink, 7300 of the otter, 8000 of the fox, 
9000 of the Canadian lynx, 60,000 of the beaver, 
150,000 of the musk rat ; besides smaller numbers 
of the skins of wolves, wolverines, badgers, and 
racoons. 

Amid this constant warfare of mankind against 
the wolf, it is not surprising that the character of the 
species should be that of ferocity, cunning, and sus- 
picion ; that they should be with difficulty tamed ; 
and that the human race should be to them the ob- 
ject of dread and of aversion. It is probably owing 
to the influence of the same hereditary fear, that 
both the male and female wolf are most remarkably 
solicitous for the protection and defence of their 
young. The female prepares a nest, or she bur- 
rows (as is the case with most of the American va- 
rieties) in almost inaccessible situations : she lines 
this retreat with moss and with her own hair. 
8he suckles her cubs for two months, during which 
the he-wolf supplies her with food. When they 
begin to eat, they are fed with half-digested meat, 
which the parents themselves disgorge ; and till the 
cubs are sufficiently grown to protect themselves — 
that is, till they are six or eight months old — the 
parents invariably watch over their safety. The fe- 
male fox is distinguished in the same manner for 
the care of her young. It is to this strong affec- 
tion for her offspring, increasing doubtless with the 
necessity for protection, that the race of wolves has 
not long ago become extirpated, at least in Europe. 
Were the young left without the aid of this extraor- 
dinary parental care, they would have little chance of 
escape from the indefatigable hostility of man. A 
distinguished writer and naturalist of tlie last age 



102 NATURAL HISTORY. 

says, " There are no animals destitute of some 
means to preserve themselves and their kind ; and 
these means so effectual, that notwithstanding all 
the endeavours and contrivknces of man and beast 
to destroy them, there is not to this day one species 
lost of such as are mentioned in history."* This 
must be taken with a limitation to the recent races 
cf animals, those " mentioned in history ;" for the 
researches of naturalists have discovered fossile re- 
mains of animals differing from any which we at 
present know. And yet it is by no means certain 
that some of these animals do not even now exist, 
although we are unacquainted with them.-f The 
kangaroo, and the ornithorhynchus, two of the most 
extraordinary creatures of Australasia with which 
we are now familiar, were unknown to Europeans 
half a century ago. Large tracts of Africa are yet 
unexplored ; and it is possible that the future en- 
terprise of such travellers as those who have already 
penetrated some distance into those regions, may be 
successful in discovering either the abodes of civili- 
zation, or, what is more probable, new varieties of 
animal life unsubdued by man, and essentially dif- 
fering from those of which the human race has al- 
ready made a conquest. 

The female wolf goes with young sixty-three 
days, producing from five to nine whelps at a litter, 
whose eyes are not opened till about the twelfth 
day, like the whelps of the dog. The average du- 
ration of the wolf's life is from fifteen to twenty 
years. 

* Ray's Wisdom of God, in the Works of the Creation, 
t See Home, Comparative Anatomy, vol. iii., p. 180. 



THE JACKAL. 



103 




Cants aureuSf Linnaeus.-— ie Chacaly Fred. Cuvier. 

There is no essential difference in the jackal and 
the dog ; and in the principal point which deter- 
mines the identity of a species — the power of con- 
tinuing a mixed variety — the dog, the w^olf, and the 
jackal are entirely similar. The difference, there- 
fore, which certainly exists in their characters, 
must be found in hereditary habit, whether among 
the domesticated or the wild varieties. 

The jackal is found in Africa, from the Cape of 
Grood Hope to Barbary ; in Syria, in Persia, and 
in all Southern Asia. It is considered by the best 



104 NATURAL HISTORY. 

commentators, that the three hundred foxes to 
whose tails Samson tied firebrands were jackals. 
Their habit of assembling together in large troops, 
so as to be taken in considerable numbers, justifies 
this conclusion ; for the fox is a solitary animal.* 
To the inhabitants of hot countries the jackal is of 
the same service as the vulture and the hyaena. 
He does not require living prey to feed upon ; but, 
wherever there is an animal body in a state of de- 
composition, his nose scents it at a great distance, 
and the air is soon freed from the putrescence. 

But the jackal is still a beast of prey ; and the 
association of the species in strong packs enables 
them to hunt down the antelope and the sheep. 
He has been popularly called " the Uon's provider." 
The common notion that he is in confederacy with 
the lion, for the chase of their mutual prey, is an 
erroneous one. At the cry of the jackal, echoed 
as it is by hundreds of similar voices through the 
woods and arid plains, the lion, whose ear is dull, 
rouses himself into action. He knows that some 
unhappy wanderer from the herds has crossed the 
path of the jackal, and he joins in the pursuit. Of 
this nocturnal cry we have read the most fearful 
accounts. " The chacal's shriek"f has been often 
described as more terrific than the howl of the hy- 
sena or the roar of the tiger ; and it probably is 
most alarming, from its singular dreariness amid 
the lonely regions in which it is heard. It is well 
described in Captain Beechey's account of his ex- 
pedition to explore the Northern Coasts of Afri- 

* See " Fragments, intended as an Appendix to Calmet," 2 
vols. 4to, 1800. 
t Leyden's Poems. 



THE JACKAL. 105 

ca : " The cry of the jackal has something in it 
rather appalling when heard for the first time at 
night ; and as they usually come in packs, the first 
shriek which is uttered is always the signal for a 
general chorus. We hardly know a sound which 
partakes less of harmony than that which is at 
present in question ; and, indeed, the sudden burst 
of the answering long-protracted scream, succeed- 
ing immediately to the opening note, is scarcely 
less impressive than the roll of the thunder-clap 
immediately after a flash of lightning. The effect 
of this music is very much increased when the first 
note is heard in the distance (a circumstance 
which often occurs), and the answering yell bursts 
out from several points at once, within a few yards 
or feet of the place where the auditors are sleeping." 
The difficulty of domesticating the jackal, if it 
were desirable, would arise from two causes. The 
one is the strong odour which he emits, as filthy as 
that of the fox ; and yet it is said that the skunk 
(a species of civet) loses its offensive smell in cap- 
tivity. The other cause is the extreme timidity of 
the jackal at the sight of a stranger ; he flies when 
he is approached, although he attempts no resist- 
ance when touched. This is, perhaps, a peculiar- 
ity arising out of confinement ; for Captain Beech- 
ey says that he has frequently gone close up with- 
in a few yards of a jackal in the wild state before 
he would turn to walk away. 



106 



NATURAL HISTORY. 




Canis decussatus, Geoffroy. — Renard croissi^ Desmarest. 

The Cross Fox, in the Gardens of the Zoological 
Society, differs very little in shape from the com- 
mon fox. The colour of his fur is a sort of gray, 
resulting from the mixture of black and white hair ; 
he has a black cross on his shoulders, from which 
he derives his name. The muzzle, the lower parts 
of the body, and the feet, are black ; the tail is ter- 
minated with white. 

This species of fox is a native of North America ; 
and in his habits he differs very little from the fox 
of Europe. Whether found in the Old or New 
World, the fox is the same wily and voracious an* 



THE FOX. 107 

imal ; greedily seizing upon birds and small quad, 
rupeds, either in the woods or near the habitations 
of man ; burrowing with great ingenuity, so as to 
elude observation, and providing for escape with 
equal sagacity ; hunted by man ; disliked and be- 
trayed by most of those animals who have a dread 
of his attacks ; and extremely difficult to be tamed, 
even when caught very young. 

The fox, like the wolf, is the constant object of 
persecution, from the ravages which he commits 
upon the exposed property in the fields and habita- 
tions of men. He has been a destroyer of vine- 
yards from the earliest times ; " Take us the foxes, 
the little foxes, that spoil the vines."* He de- 
vours honey ; he sucks eggs ; he carries off poul- 
try ; he kills the hare in her form, and the rabbit 
in the warren. He is, therefore, universally hunt- 
ed and destroyed. In England the breed is not 
extinct, partly from the extreme prudence of the 
animal, and partly because it is considered un- 
sportsmanlike to kill a fox except in the chase. 
Fox-hunting, perhaps, furnishes the best excuse for 
the continuance of a custom which, although it has 
been called an instinct of man, must certainly be 
an instinct belonging to a very rude and early state 
of society. 

The fox may in some degree be considered a 
nocturnal animal ; for, in a strong light, the pupil 
of the eye contracts, like that of the cat. 

The female fox produces four or five whelps at 
a litter, which arrive at maturity in about eighteen 
months, and live, upon the average, thirteen or 
fourteen years. 

» Song of Solomon. 



I 



108 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Having thus noticed many interesting specimens, 
and given some general particulars, of the family 
of dogs, we subjoin their scientific character : 

The group of carnivorous quadrupeds, known by 
the name Canis, and which is found in all parts of 
the habitable globe, excepting a few islands of the 
Pacific Ocean, comprehends the dog, the wolf, the 
jackal, and the fox. 

The teeth of this group are thus arranged : 

Incisors, ^, Canine, -fZy, Molar, fz^, Total, 42. 
They have two tuberculous teeth behind each car- 
nivorous one. Their teeth are equally fitted for 
devouring animal and vegetable substances. 

The tongue is not rough, as in the cat, but per- 
fectly smooth. 

They walk upon the ground with their toes, 
which have curved claws for scratching the earth. 
These claws are not retractile, or capable of being 
drawn back within a sheath. Each of the four 
feet has five toes, four of which only touch the 
ground. The hind feet have generally four toes, 
though in a few varieties a fifth is developed. 

In the dog, the wolf, and the jackal, the pupils of 
the eyes are round ; in the fox, they are trans- 
versely linear. 



THE HY-aENA. 



109 



CHAPTER V* 

THE HYJENA. 




Striped Hycena. 



Hymna vulgaris, Desmarest. — Cants Hycsno^ 

LlNN^US. 



Of this animal there are only two species now 
known, the striped and the spotted. Desmarest 
gives the height of the striped hyaena, at the shoul- 
ders, as nineteen inches. The ordinary length of 
the body, from the muzzle to the tail, is about three 
feet three inches. The colour of the striped hysena 
is a brownish gray, with transverse bands of dark 
brown on the body, which stripes become oblique on 
the flank and the legs. The hide is composed of two 
K 



110 NATURAL HISTORY. 

sorts of hair ; the fur or wool in very small quan. 
tity, and the silky hair, long, stiff, and not very 
thick, excepting on the limbs, where the hair is 
short and close, and on the muzzle, which is quite 
shaven, as well as the external face of the ears. 
The hair upon the line of the back is much thicker 
and stronger than on any other part, particularly 
on the withers, forming a sort of mane, extending 
from the nape of the neck to the beginning of the 
tail, which is also covered with long hair. 

The striped hysena is a native of Barbary, Egypt, 
Abyssinia, Nubia, Syria, and Persia. This spe- 
cies was known to the ancients, and is described by 
Aristotle with much correctness. Pliny, however, 
and other writers on natural history, have left us 
abundant proofs of the extent of human credulity, 
when employed upon such objects as ferocious an- 
imals, whose habits were imperfectly known, and 
were calculated to produce terror and disgust. 
The hyaena possesses great strength in the neck; 
and for this reason Pliny and other ancient wri- 
ters believed that his neck consisted of one bone, 
without any joint. The ancients considered also, 
as may be seen by a passage in Lucan's Pharsalia 
(lib. vi., 672), that this neck without a joint was of 
peculiar efficacy in magical invocations. Shaw 
tells us, in his travels, that the Arabs, when they 
kill a hysena, bury the head, lest it should be made 
the element of some charm against their safety and 
happiness. It is in this way that superstitions ex- 
tend themselves through the world, and endure for 
many generations. The Greeks and Romans be- 
lieved, too, of the hyaena, that it could change its 
sex ; that it imitated the human voice (the popular 






THE HYiENA. Ill 

name of laughing hysena is, perhaps, derived from 
this notion), and that it had the power of charming 
the shepherds, so as to rivet them to the spot upon 
which they were met by the quadruped, in the same 
way that a serpent fascinates a bird. A somewhat 
similar notion prevailed among the poets and natu- 
rahsts of antiquity with regard to the wolf; they 
affirming that if a man encountered a wolf, and the 
wolf first fixed his eye upon him, he was rendered 
incapable of speaking, and became permanently 
dumb. These stories, both of the hysena and the 
wolf, are evidently exaggerations of the fear which 
would naturally be produced by the sudden encoun- 
ter with a ferocious and dangerous animal. Many 
of the notions of antiquity, with regard to the struc- 
ture and habits of animals, were equally irrational. 
It was gravely maintained, for instance, that the 
elephant had no joints, and, "being unable to lie down, 
slept leaning against a tree ; that the badger had 
the legs of one side shorter than those of the other ; 
that the bear brought forth her cubs imperfectly 
formed, and licked them into shape ; that deer lived 
several hundred years ; that the chameleon derived 
its support solely from the atmospheric air. These, 
and many other fancies, proceeded either from a 
literal construction of metaphorical expressions, or 
a complete ignorance of the economy of nature, 
with regard to the laws by which animal life is reg- 
ulated. " There are no grotesques in nature." 
Such errors as these have long since been exploded, 
and the cause of real knowledge has been, therefore, 
greatly advanced by the substitution of the true for 
the fabulous. The popular interest of natural his- 
tory is not necessarily reduced by this separation of 



112 NATURAL HISTORY. 

fact from fiction : for the more we examine the op- 
erations of nature, the more shall we be sensible 
of the real wonders which they present ; but which, 
however extraordinary they may appear, are never 
inconsistent with the great principles of organiza- 
tion, and are never calculated to present any ex- 
ceptions to the beauty and harmony of that design 
by which every living thing is formed and sustained. 

The qualities of the two sorts of hyaena are so 
similar, that we may simplify our description of the 
habits of each, by describing, at this point, the par- 
ticular appearance of the spotted species. 

The spotted hyaena is a native of Southern Af- 
rica ; and the species is found in large numbers 
in the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope ; 
from this circumstance Desmarest named it. The 
general shape of this hyaena is very similar to that 
of the striped, though it is ordinarily smaller. The 
mane is remarkable, but not quite so full as in the 
striped species. The general colour of the hide is 
a dirty yellow, approaching to a blackish brown 
on the belly and limbs, with spots also of a black- 
ish brown, more or less deep, on all parts of the 
body, excepting the under part of the belly and of 
the breast, the inner surface of the limbs, and the 
head ; the extremity of the muzzle is black ; the 
tail is brown, without spots. 

The peculiar powers of the hyaena, arising out 
of the extraordinary strength of his jaws and teeth, 
admirably fit him for the purposes which he serves 
in the economy of nature. An inhabitant of warm 
countries, he principally derives his subsistence, in 
common with the jackal and the vulture, from those 



THE HY^NA. 



113 




Spotted Hyasna. 



Cards croeuta, LlNN^US.- 
Desmarest, 



-Hycsna Capensis 



animal remains which, if unconsumed, would pro- 
duce the most serious inconvenience. All the nar- 
ratives of residents in, or travellers through, South- 
ern Africa, agree in their accounts of these facts. 
Mr. Pringle, in the notes to his " Ephemerides," 
says, " There are several species of the vulture in 
South Africa, but the most common is the large 
light-coloured vultur percnopterus, one of the sa- 
cred birds of the ancient Egyptians. These fowls 
divide with the hysenas the office of carrion-scav- 
engers ; and the promptitude with which they dis- 
cover and devour every dead carcass is truly sur- 
prising. They also instinctively follow any band 
of hunters, or party of men travelling, especially in 
K 2 



114 NATTJRAL HISTORY. 

solitary places, wheeling in circles high in the air, 
ready to pounce down upon any game that may be 
shot and not instantly secured, or the carcass of any 
ox or other animal that may perish on the road. I 
have seen a large ox so dexterously handled by a 
flock of these voracious fowls, that in the course of 
three or four hours not a morsel, except the bones 
and the skin (which they had contrived to disiU' 
carnate almost entire), remained for the hyaenas. 
In a field of battle in South Africa, no one ever 
buries the dead ; the birds and beasts of prey re- 
lieve the living of that trouble. Even the bones, 
except a few of the less manageable parts, find a 
sepulchre in the voracious maw of the hysena." 
Mr. Burchell, speaking of the ofiice of vultures in 
hot regions, says, " Vultures have been ordained 
evidently to perform very necessary and useful du- 
ties on the globe ; as, indeed, has every other an- 
imated being, however purblind we may be in our 
views of their utility ; and we might almost ven- 
ture to declare that those duties are the final cause 
of their existence. To those who have had an op- 
portunity of examming these birds, it need not be 
remarked how perfectly the formation of a vulture is 
adapted to that share in the daily business of the 
globe which has been allotted to it ; that of clear- 
ing away putrid or putrescent animal matter, which 
might otherwise taint the air and produce infec- 
tious disease." The vulture is enabled to perform 
these duties, in countries of great extent and thinly 
scattered population, principally from his extraor- 
dinary powers of sight. The wonderful extent of 
this bird's eye is shown in the following instance : 
" In the year 1778, Mr. Baber and several other 



THE HY-ENA. 115 

gentlemen were on a hunting party in the island 
of Cossimbuzar, in Bengal, about fifteen miles north 
of the city of Murshedabad. They killed a wild 
hog of uncommon size, and left it on the ground 
near the tent. An hour after, walking near the 
spot where it lay, the sky perfectly clear, a dark 
spot in the air at a great distance attracted their 
attention. It appeared to increase in size, and 
move directly towards them : as it advanced, it 
proved to be a vulture flying in a direct hne to the 
dead hog. In an hour, seventy others came in all 
directions^ which induced Mr. Baber to remark, 
this cannot be smell."* The faculty of smell of the 
hyaena conducts him as certainly to his food as the 
sight of the vulture. Major Denham tells us in 
his Journal, "the hysenas came so close to the tents 
last night, that a camel, which lay about a hundred 
yards from the enclosure, was found nearly half eat- 
en. A lion first made a meal on the poor animal, 
when the hysenas came down upon what he had 
left." Mr. Burchell says, "A new species of an- 
telope, which had been shot late on the preceding 
evening, was fetched home ; but, during the night, 
the hysenas, or wolves as they are usually called 
by the Boors and Hottentots, had devoured all the 
flesh, leaving us only the head and hide." These, 
and many more instances which we might select, 
show us that in these regions, in the very hour 
when any quadruped falls, the sharp-scented hyae- 
nas immediately make their appearance, and rush 
into the encampments of man for their share of the 
prey. At the Cape, they formerly came down into 
the town, unmolested by the inhabitants, to clear the 
* Home, Comp. Anat.,-vol. iii., p. 216. 



116 NATURAL HISTORY. 

shambles of their refuse. The common notion that 
they tear newly-buried bodies out of graves is not 
inconsistent with their extraordinary voracity and 
the peculiar strength of their claws. It is well as- 
certained that hyaenas devour the dead carcasses 
of their own species. 

But the depredations of the hyaena are not con- 
fined to the remains of the dead. There are peri- 
ods when they become bold from extreme hunger, 
and will carry off very large animals, and even hu- 
man beings, with the most daring ferocity. Major 
Denham says, "at this season of the year" (Au- 
gust), " there are other reasons besides the falls of 
rain which induce people to remain in their habi- 
tations. When the great lake overflows the im- 
mense district which, in the dry season, aflTords 
cover and food, by its coarse grass and jungle, to 
the numerous savage animals with which Bornou 
abounds, they are driven from these wilds, and take 
refuge in the standing corn, and sometimes in the 
immediate neighbourhood of the towns. Elephants 
had already been seen at Dowergoo, scarcely six 
miles from Kouka ; and a female slave, while she 
was returning home from weeding the corn to 
Kowa, not more than ten miles distant, had been 
carried oflT by a lioness. The hyaenas, which are 
everywhere in legions, grew now so extremely rav- 
enous, that a good large village, where I sometimes 
procured a draught of sour milk on my duck-shoot- 
ing excursions, had been attacked the night before 
my last visit, the town absolutely carried by storm, 
notwithstanding defences nearly six feet high of 
"branches of the prickly tulloh, and two donkeys, 
•whose flesh these animals are particularly fond of, 



THE HYiENA. 117 

carried off, in spite of the efforts of the people. We 
constantly heard them close to the walls of our 
own town at nights ; and, on a gate being left partly 
open, they would enter and carry off any unfortu- 
nate animal that they could find in the streets." 

With this strong desire for food, approaching to 
the boldness of the most desperate craving, the 
hysena, although generally fearful of the presence 
of man, is an object of natural terror to the African 
traveller. Bruce relates, that one night in Maib- 
sha, in Abyssinia, he heard a noise in his tent ; and, 
getting up from his bed, saw two large blue eyes 
glaring upon him. It was a powerful hysena, who 
had been attracted to the tent by a quantity of can. 
dies, which he had seized upon, and was bearing 
off in his mouth. He had a desperate encounter 
with the beast, but succeeded in killing him. 

The hysena has always been an object of aversion 
to mankind : and this feeling has been kept up, not 
only by the showman's stories of " that cruel and 
untameable beast, that never was yet tamed by 
man," but by writers of natural history, from the 
days of Pliny to those of Goldsmith. The latter 
pleasant compiler tells us, " no words can give an 
adequate idea of this animal's figure, deformity, and 
fierceness. More savage and untameable than any 
other quadruped, it seems to be for ever in a state 
of rage or rapacity." With regard to its deform- 
ity, we are rather of opinion with Sir Thomas 
Brown, that " there is a general beauty in the works 
of God ; and, therefore, no deformity in any kind of 
species of creature whatsoever ;" and, with him, we 
"cannot tell by what logic we call a toad, a bear, 
or an elephant ugly, they being created in those 



118 NATURAL HISTORY. 

outward shapes and figures which best express those 
actions of their inward forms."* That the hysena 
can be tamed, and most completely and extensively 
so, there can be no doubt. " The cadaverous cro^ 
cuta^^ (the spotted hyaena), says Barrow, in his 
Travels in Southern Africa, " has lately been do- 
mesticated in the Snewberg, where it is now con- 
sidered one of the best hunters after game, and as 
faithful and diligent as any of the common sorts of 
domestic dogs." Bishop Heber saw a gentleman 
in India, Mr. Traill, who had a hysena for several 
years, which followed him about like a dog, and 
fawned on those with whom he was acquainted ; 
and the bishop mentions this as an instance of 
" how much the poor hysena is wronged when he is 
described as untameable."- M. F. Cuvier notices an 
animal of this species that had been taken young at 
the Cape, and was tamed without difficulty. His 
keepers had a complete command over his affec- 
tions. He one day escaped from his cage, and qui- 
etly walked into a cottage, where he was retaken 
without offering any resistance. And yet the rage 
of this animal was occasionally very great when 
strangers approached it. The fact is, that the hy- 
aena is exceedingly impatient of confinement, and 
feels a constant irritation at the constraint which, in 
the den of a menagerie, is put upon his natural hab- 
its. An individual at Exeter Change, some years 
ago, was so tame as to be allowed to walk about 
the exhibition-room. He was afterward sold to a 
person who permitted him to go out with him into 
the fields, led by a string. After these indulgences, 
he became the property of a travelling showman, 
* Religio Medici, ^ 16. 



THE HY^NA, 119 

who kept him constantly in a cage. From that 
time his ferocity became quite alarming ; he would 
allow no stranger to approach him, and he grad- 
ually pined away and died. This is one out of the 
many examples of the miseries we inflict upon an- 
imals through ignorance of their natural habits : and 
the same ignorance perpetuates delusions, which 
even men of talent, like Goldsmith, have adopted, 
and which still, in the instance before us, leads many 
to say, with him, " though taken ever so young, the 
hysena cannot be tamed." It is very doubtful 
whether any animal, however fierce, is incapable 
of being subjected to man. Mr. Barrow procured 
in Africa a young leopard, which he says " became 
instantly tame, and as playful as the domestic kit- 
ten," He adds, "most beasts of prey, if taken 
young, may almost instantly be rendered tame. 
The fierce lion or the tiger is sooner reconciled 
to a state of domestication than the timid antelope." 
And this is evidently a most wise arrangement of 
Providence, in order that the progress of civiliza- 
tion, with the dominion which man has over the 
beasts of the field, shall not necessarily extermi- 
nate the races of the inferior animals. The fierce 
buffalo of the African plains, by an intermixture 
of breeds and by training, becomes the patient ox 
of European communities ; the hyaena assists the 
colonists of the Cape in the business (for to them 
it is a business) of the chase ; the hunting leopard 
renders the same service to the natives of Hindos- 
tan ; and the Esquimaux dog, as we have already 
seen, is, in all probability, a wolf in a state of ser- 
vitude. 



120 NATUKAL HISTOEY. 



The subject of hyaenas is intimately connected 
with a most interesting branch of natural science, 
which it would be wrong here to pass over ; we 
mean the discovery of large quantities of bones, 
which must have belonged to this tribe at a very 
distant period, in various parts of the European 
Continent and in Great Britain. This fact, con- 
nected with the discovery, from time to time, of 
the bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopota- 
mus, crocodile, and other animals, in considerable 
quantities, is one of the most extraordinary circum- 
stances in the history of the globe ; and involves 
a discussion, whether these bones have been brought 
hither by some great convulsion of nature, such as 
the deluge, or whether they belonged to animals 
which were formerly inhabitants of the countries 
where they are found. 

Casting a general view over the animal and also 
the vegetable kingdoms, as they at present exist, 
we find that animals and plants are generally dis- 
tributed over the earth in bands or parallel zones, 
according to the degree of temperature which ac- 
cords with their respective natures. On the tops 
of mountains, where the air is cold, we find the 
animals and plants which are natives of cHmates 
near the poles ; and in the plains, where the air is 
mild and warm, we encounter species which are 
somewhat similar to those of the countries near the 
equator. Tournefort, a celebrated botanist, found 
at the top of Mount Libanus the plants of Lapland ; 
a little lower down, those of Sweden ; still lower, 
those of France; descending near to the base, 



THE HY^NA. 121 

those of Italy ; and at the foot of the mountain, 
those of Asia. In the same manner there are 
zones of different temperature on the whole earth, 
ascending from the equator as from the base of a 
mountain ; and each plant or animal is fitted by 
nature for a peculiar existence conformable to the 
climate in which it is found. When, therefore, we 
discover in England and in the northern parts of 
Europe the remains of animals which we know are 
at present the inhabitants of tropical regions, we 
are natually led to consider, either that the bones 
have been swept hither from those regions, or that 
some great change has taken place in our globe, 
of which this change in the residence ( called by 
naturalists the habitat) of animals is the result. 
Sir Humphrey Davy has shown that a very high 
tempertaure was necessary to the production of 
crystals and the waters contained in them ; and it 
is therefore considered by some geologists that 
the surface of our globe has been gradually cooling, 
particularly as experiment has determined that the 
metals and waters met with at the greatest depth to 
which man has penetrated are at present hotter than 
the surface of the earth is at the equator. The 
geologists conclude, therefore, that there was a time 
when the surface of the earth was too hot for the 
production of animals and vegetables ; that tropical 
animals were its first living inhabitants ; and that 
there was a period when the chmate of Europe was 
adapted to such animals. 

Collections of the bones of hyaenas have been 

found in large quantities in Franconia, in the Hartz 

Forest, in Westphalia, in Saxony, in Wirtemberg, 

in Bavaria, and in France. But the most remark- 

L 



122 NATURAL HISTORY. 

able discovery was that made by Professor Buck- 
land, of Oxford, in a cave at Kirkdale, or Kirby 
Moorside, Yorkshire, in the summer of 1822* 
Bones of a similar nature, some in large and some 
in smaller quantities, had previously been found in 
different caverns in England. 

The cave of Kirkdale is a natural fissure or cav- 
ern, extending three hundred feet into the body of 
the solid limestone rock, and varying from two to 
five feet in height and breath. It was discovered 
accidentally in the progress of working a stone 
quarry, as the mouth was closed with rubbish. It 
is situated on the slope of a hill, about one hundred 
feet above the level of a small river. The bottom 
of the cavern is nearly horizontal, and is entirely 
covered, to the depth of about a foot, with a sedi- 
ment of mud. The surface of this mud is, in some 
parts, crusted over with limestone, formed by drop- 
pings from the roof. At the bottom of this mud, 
the original floor of the cave is covered with teeth 
and fragments of bone of the following animals : 
the hysena, the elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippo- 
potamus, the horse, the ox, two or three species of 
deer, the bear, the fox, the water-rat, and several 
birds. 

The inference which is drawn by Professor Buck- 
land respecting these bones, is, that they were ac- 
cumulated before the deluge in this cave or den, 
and that the black mud with which they are covered 
over is the sediment left by the waters of the flood. 
The effect of this mode of preserving them has 
been, that the bones are not at all mineralized, but 
actually retain nearly the whole of their animal jelly. 

The bones are, for the most part, broken and 



THE HYJENA. 123 

gnawed to pieces, and the teeth lie loose among the 
fragments of the bones. Among these the teeth 
of hyaenas are most abundant, the greater part of 
which are worn down almost to the stumps, as if 
with the operation of gnawing bones. Professor 
Buckland considers that hyaenas must have been 
the antediluvian inhabitants of the den at Kirkdale, 
and the other animals, whose bones are found, must 
have been carried in for food by the hyaenas, the 
smaller animals, perhaps, entire, the large ones 
piecemeal. Judging from the properties of the 
remains found in the den, the ordinary food of 
the hyaenas seems to have been oxen, deer, and 
water-rats ; the bones of the larger animals are 
more rare ; and the fact of the bones of the hyaena 
being broken up equally with the rest, renders it 
probable that they devoured the dead carcasses of 
their own species. Many of the bones bear the 
impress of the canine fangs of the hyaena. Some 
of the bones and teeth appear to have undergone 
various stages of decay by lying in the bottom of 
the den while it was inhabited ; but little or none 
has taken place since the introduction of the earthy 
sediment in which they are imbedded. 

The discoverer of these remains contends, from 
the evidence afforded by the interior of this den, 
that all these animals whose bones are there found, 
lived and died in its vicinity ; and as the bones be- 
long to the same species which occur in a fossil 
state in the beds of gravel with which England 
abounds, it follows that the period in which they 
inhabited these regions was that immediately pre- 
ceding the formation of these gravel-beds by some 
transient and universal inundation, which has left 



124 NATURAL HISTORY. 

traces of its ravages over the surface of the whole 
globe. Professor Buckland concludes that the ac- 
curacy of the Mosaic records is thus satisfactorily 
established in all essential particulars. 

The Fossil (or extinct) Hyaena, according to 
Cuvier, was about a third larger than the striped 
species ; with the muzzle, in proportion, much 
shorter. The teeth, as to form, resembled those of 
the spotted species, but they were considerably 
larger. The powers of the animal, particularly in 
its faculty of gnawing bones, were therefore great- 
er than those of the existing races. 

The division of carnivorous quadrupeds Called 
Hysena is scientifically distinguished by having no 
small or tuberculous teeth behind the carnivorous. 
Its teeth are thus arranged : 

Incisors |-, Canine |Z|, Molar |Zf , Total 34. 
These teeth are particularly adapted for breaking 
bones, from their thickness. 

The head is of a middle size, with an elevated 
forehead ; the jaws shorter than those of the dogs, 
and longer than those of the cats ; the tongue 
rough ; the eyes large, with longitudinal pupils ; 
the ears long, pricked, easily moveable, very open, 
and directed forward ; the nostrils resemble those 
of the dogs. 

They are digitigrade, or walk on their toes ; 
their feet are terminated with four toes, of which 
the claws, which are very strong, are not retractile ; 
the fore-legs appear more elevated than the hind. 
Beneath the tail is a glandulous pouch. 

Naturalists have not ascertained the period of 
gestation, and other circumstances, such as the 



THE LION. 125 

number of young at a litter, connected with the re- 
production of the hysena ; nor do we find their av- 
erage duration of life stated by any writer of au- 
thority. 



CHAPTER VL 

THE LION. 




Felis leo, Linn^us. — Le Lion, Buffon. 



The most interesting object of a menagerie is 
probably its lion ; and there are few persons who 
L2 



126 NATURAL HISTORY. 

are not familiar with the general appearance of this 
most powerful animal. To behold, in perfect se- 
curity, that creature, which is the terror of all trav- 
ellers in the regions where he abounds ; which is 
said to be able to bear off a buffalo on his back, 
and crush the scull of a horse by a single stroke of 
his paw ; this is certainly gratifying to a reasona- 
ble curiosity. The appearance of dignified self- 
possession which the lion displays when at rest ; 
his general indifference to slight provocations ; his 
haughty growl when he is roused by the importu- 
nities of his keepers or the excitement of the mul- 
titude ; his impatient roar when he is expecting his 
daily meal, and his frightful avidity when he is at 
length enabled to seize upon his allotted portion ; 
these are traits of his character in confinement 
w^hich are familiar to almost every one. 

The ordinary length of the lion, from the end of 
the muzzle to the insertion of the tail, is about six 
feet, and the height above three feet. The uni- 
formity of his colour is well known, being of a pale 
tawny above, and somewhat lighter beneath ; and 
his enormous mane is a characteristic which no one 
can forget. The long tuft of rather black hair which 
terminates his tail may not have been so generally 
observed ; but this is peculiar to his species. The 
pupils of his eyes are round. The lioness differs 
from the lion in the want of a mane, in the more 
slender formation of her body, and in the compar- 
ative smallness of her head. 

To understand the natural habits of the lion, we 
must not be satisfied to observe him in menageries, 
where, ordinarily, his disposition is soon subjected 
by that fear of man which constitutes a feature of 



THE LION. 127 

his character. We may, indeed, observe the form 
of this magnificent beast ; and may occasionally be 
delighted by his gentleness and entire submission 
to the commands of his capricious masters. But 
we must compare our own impressions of his char- 
acter with the accounts of intelligent travellers ; we 
must examine the peculiar structure of his body, 
as developed by skilful and patient anatomists ; and 
we may then return to view the lion of the show- 
man with correct notions of his physical powers, and 
with unromantic estimates of his moral qualities. 
It has been too much the fashion with writers on 
natural history to have their antipathies and their 
partialities towards the ferocious quadrupeds ; and 
thus, as the hysena has been represented as com- 
bining every disgusting and offensive habit, so has 
the lion been painted as possessed of the most no- 
ble and magnanimous affections. " The King of 
the Beasts" is a name applied to him, with which 
every one is familiar. In physical strength he is 
indeed unequalled. He is ordained by nature to 
live on animal food, and fitted for the destruction 
of animal life by the most tremendous machinery 
that could be organized for such a purpose, regu- 
lated by a cunning peculiar to his species. But 
when we investigate the modes in which he em- 
ploys these powers, we may perhaps be inclined 
to leave the stories of his generosity to the poets 
and romance-writers, who (as well as the authors 
of more sober relations) have generally been too 
much inclined to invest physical force with those 
attributes of real courage and magnanimity which 
are not always found in association with it. 

To comprehend the habits of the lion, we must 



128 NATURAL HISTORY. 

follow with attention the narratives of those travel- 
lers who have seen him in his native haunts. From 
the Cape of Good Hope, for instance, an adventu- 
rous naturalist sets forth to explore the immense 
plains of the interior of Southern Africa. His jour- 
ney is performed partly on foot and partly in a wag- 
on drawn by eight or ten oxen. His escort consists 
of a few sturdy Hottentots, accustomed to the coun- 
try into which he desires to penetrate, excellent 
marksmen, and expert in following up the track 
of every wild or ferocious beast. Farther and far- 
ther he rolls on from the abodes of civilization, and 
soon finds himself surrounded by tribes of Bushmen 
or Caffres, who live in a rude but contented man- 
ner, depending for subsistence upon their flocks and 
upon the chase, and knowing very few of those 
agricultural arts by which their arid plains might 
be partially redeemed from sterility. At length 
he reaches those parts where ferocious animals 
abound ; and where the lion, particularly, is an ob- 
ject of dread. Having passed the borders of Euro- 
pean colonization, his fears are first excited by view- 
ing the footmarks of the lion. His Hottentot guides 
have their tales of terror ready for the traveller, 
who beholds for the first time the impress of those 
tremendous feet upon the sands of the plain which 
he is to cross ; and they are ready to show their 
skill in tracking, if necessary, the prowling savage 
to his lair. So nice is this faculty in a Hottentot, 
of tracking footsteps, that Mr. Barrow tells us he 
will distinguish the wolf from the domestic dog by 
the largeness of the ball of the foot and the compar- 
ative smallness of the toes ; and will single out 
among a thousand any of his companions' feet. 



THE LION. 129 

This is an effect of education, an ability produced 
by the constant exercise of a peculiar faculty, which 
has been acquired by early training. It is the same 
ability by which a skilful shepherd is enabled to 
know every individual sheep belonging to his flock ; 
and its exercise in each case proceeds from that 
habit of attention which enables the human mind 
to attain excellence in every pursuit. But even a 
Hottentot does not discover the footsteps of a lion 
without fear. Mr. Burchell, with his man Gert, 
was in search of a party who had killed a hippo- 
potamus. They were hurrying on through a wil- 
low-grove, when the Hottentot suddenly stopped, 
and cried out with some emotion, " Look here, sir !" 
Mr. Burchell continues : " I turned my eyes down- 
ward, and saw the recent footmarks of a lion, which 
had been to drink at the river apparently not more 
than an hour before. This gave a check to our 
dialogue on the hippopotamus ; and, in a lower and 
graver tone of voice, he talked now only of lions, 
and the danger of being alone in a place so cover- 
ed with wood." That immediate danger passed 
away, but new fears of the same nature were con- 
stantly presenting themselves. Mr. Barrow says : 
" It seems to be a fact well established, that the lion 
prefers the flesh of a Hottentot to any other crea- 
ture ;" and the same writer states, in another place, 
that this powerful and treacherous animal seldom 
makes an open attack, but, like the rest of the feline 
genus, lies in ambush till it can conveniently spring 
upon its prey. The best security which man and 
beast have against the attacks of the lion is found 
in his indolence ; he requires the strong excitement 
of hunger to be roused to a pursuit ; but, when he 



130 NATURAL HISTORY. 

is roused, his vaunted magnanimity is no protection, 
even for a sleeping foe, as the poets have pretended. 

We must, however, follow our African traveller 
a little farther in his career of observation. A low- 
ering evening comes on ; thunder-clouds collect in 
every quarter ; and the night becomes extremely 
dark. The most vivid flashes of lightning are in- 
termingled with the heaviest torrents of rain. The 
cattle are restless ; and the Hottentots are prevent- 
ed making their evening fire for the cookery of 
their supper, and for defence against the beasts of 
prey. On such nights as these the lion is particu- 
larly active. The fury of the elements appears to 
rouse him from his ordinary torpidity. He ad- 
vances upon his prey with much less than his usual 
caution ; and he is not at once driven off by the 
barking of dogs and the sound of muskets. The 
oxen of the caravan, who appear to scent the dis- 
tant approach of their terrible enemy, struggle to 
break loose from their wagons to escape their dan- 
ger by instant flight ; an escape which would prove 
their destruction. It is only by keeping with man 
that they are safe. The repeated discharge of fire- 
arms has the remarkable effect not only of keeping 
off the lion, but of abating the restlessness of the 
cattle. They appear to feel that their enemy will 
retreat when he hears this demonstration of the 
powers of the only creature that is enabled, by supe- 
rior reason, to cope with him. Nights of such bar- 
assing watchfulness are not unfrequently experi- 
enced by the African traveller.* 

It is no uncommon thing in the plains of South- 
ern Africa to encounter innumerable herds of wild 
* See BurchelJ's Travels, vol, i., chapter xviii, 



ITHE LION. 181 

animals, quietly grazing like tame cattle. Wher- 
ever the quagga (a species of wild ass), the spring- 
bok, and the hartebeest (the Dutch names for two 
varieties of the antelope) are found, there will be 
lions, numerous in proportion, for the destruction 
of their prey. Of course those formidable beasts 
can only exist where the means of their support are 
to be procured. They are destined to live on ani- 
mal food ; and, therefore, where there are flocks 
and herds, whether in a wild or a domestic state, 
there they will be also. Mr. Campbell states that 
the quagga migrates in winter from the tropics to 
the vicinity of the Malaleveen river ; which, though 
farther to the south, is reported to be considerably 
warmer than within the tropics, when the sun has 
retired to the northern hemisphere. He saw bands 
of two or three hundred quaggas, all travelling 
southward. They are followed by lions, who 
slaughter them night by night ; and what the lions 
leave of the carcasses of these unfortunate animals, 
is devoured by the vultures and the Bushmen. 
Even the buffalo, whose forehead, when he is of 
mature age, is completely covered with. a rugged 
mass of horn as hard as a rock, the fibres of whose 
muscles are like so many bundles of cords, and 
whose hide is little inferior in strength and thick- 
ness to that of the rhinoceros, even he is not safe 
from the attacks of the lion. " He lies waiting for 
him in ambush till a convenient opportunity offers 
for springing upon the buffalo and fixing his fangs 
in his throat ; then sticking his paw into the ani- 
mal's face, he twists round the head and pins him 
to the ground by the horns, holding him in that sit- 
uation till he expires from loss of blood."* 
♦ Barrow vol. i. 



132 NATURAL HISTORY. 

It has been often stated by travellers in Africa, 
and the statement has been repeated by Mr, Prin- 
gle, upon the authority of a chief of the Bechuanas, 
that the lion, after he has made his fatal spring upon 
the giraffe when he comes to drink at the pools, is 
carried away for miles, fixed on the neck of that 
fleet and powerful creature, before his victim sinks 
under him. 

To the traveller in Africa the lion is formidable 
not at night only ; he lies in his path, and is with 
difficulty disturbed to allow a passage for his wag- 
ons and cattle, even when the sun is shining with 
its utmost brilliancy ; nor he is roused from some 
bushy place on the roadside by the indefatigable 
dogs which always accompany a caravan. Mr. 
Burchell has described with great spirit an encoun- 
ter of this nature : 

" The day was exceedingly pleasant, and not a 
cloud was to be seen. For a mile or two we trav- 
elled along the bank of the river, which in this 
part abounded in tall mat-rushes. The dogs seem- 
ed much to enjoy prowling about and examining 
every bushy place, and at last met with some ob- 
ject among the rushes which caused them to set up 
a most vehement and determined barking. We 
explored the spot with caution, as we suspected, 
from the peculiar tone of their bark, that it was 
what it proved to be, lions. Having encouraged 
the dogs to drive them out, a task which they per- 
formed with great willingness, we had a full view of 
an enormous black-maned lion and a lioness. 
The latter was seen only for a minute, as she made 
her escape up the river, under concealment of the 
rushes ; but the lion came steadily forward and 



1 



THE LION* 138 

Stood still to look at us. At this moment we felt 
our situation not free from danger, as the animal 
seemed preparing to spring upon us, and we were 
standing on the bank at the distance of only a few 
yards from him, most of us being on foot and un- 
armed, without any visible opportunity of escaping. 
I had given up my horse to the hunters, and it was 
useless to attempt avoiding him. I stood well upon 
my guard, holding my pistols in my hand, with my 
finger upon the trigger, and those who had mus- 
kets kept themselves prepared in the same manner. 
But at this instant the dogs boldly flew in between 
us and the lion, and, surrounding him, kept him at 
bay by their violent and resolute barking. The 
courage of these faithful animals was most admira- 
ble ; they advanced up to the side of the huge 
beast, and stood making the greatest clamour in 
his face, without the least appearance of fear. The 
lion, conscious of his strength, remained unmoved 
at their noisy attempts, and kept his head turned 
towards us. At one moment the dogs, perceiving 
his eyes thus engaged, had advanced close to his 
feet, and seemed as if they would actually seize 
hold of him ; but they paid dearly for their im- 
prudence ; for, without discomposing the majestic 
and steady attitude in which he stood fixed, he 
merely moved his paw, and at the next instant I 
beheld two lying dead. In doing this he made 
so little exertion, that it was scarcely perceptible by 
what means they had been killed. Of the time 
which we had gained by the interference of the 
dogs, not a moment was lost ; we fired upon him ; 
one of the balls went through his side just between 
the short ribs, and the blood immediately began to 
M 



134 NATURAL HISTORT. 

flow, but the animal still remained standing in the 
same position. We had now no doubt that he 
v/ould spring upon us ; every gun was instantly re- 
loaded ; but, happily, we were mistaken, and were 
not sorry to see him move quietly away, though I 
had hoped in a few moments to be able to take hold 
of his paw without danger. 

" This was considered by our party to be a lion 
of the largest size, and seemed, as I measured him 
by comparison with the dogs, to be, though less 
bulky, as large as an ox. He was certainly as 
long in body, though lower in stature ; and his co- 
pious mane gave him a truly formidable appear- 
ance. He was of that variety which the Hotten- 
tots and boors distinguish by the name of the 
Mack lion, on account of the blacker colour of the 
mane, and which is said to be always larger and 
more dangerous than the other, which they call the 
fale lion (vaal leeuw). Of the courage of a lion 
I have no very high opinion ; but of his majestic air 
and movements, as exhibited by this animal while 
at liberty in his native plains, I can bear testimony. 
Notwithstanding the pain of a wound, of which he 
must soon afterward have died, he moved slowly 
away with a steady and measured step. 

" At the time when men first adopted the lion as 
the emblem of courage, it would seem that they re- 
garded great size and strength as indicating it ; but 
they were greatly mistaken in the character they 
have given to this indolent, skulking animal, and 
have overlooked a much better example of true 
courage, and of other virtues also, in the bold and 
faithful dog." 

Mr. Burchell, as we may learn from the forego. 



THE LION. 135 

ing extract, is not inclined to maintain the courage 
of the African lion, whatever impression he may 
have had of his extraordinary physical strength. 
The natural habits of the Hon are certainly those 
of treachery ; he is not disposed, under any cir- 
cumstances, to meet his prey face to face ; and he 
is particularly unwilling to encounter man when 
he crosses him in the full blaze of day. The 
inability of his eye (in common with most others of 
the cat-tribe) to bear a strong light, may account 
in a great degree for this circumstance, which has 
probably brought upon him much of the reproach of 
being a skulking, cowardly animal. But we ap- 
prehend that there were periods in the history of 
African colonization when the lion was of a bolder 
nature in his encounters with mankind ; that the 
dread of firearms has become, in some degree, a 
habit of the species ; and that he has sagacity 
or hereditary instinct to know that a flash and 
a loud sound is often followed by a speedy death 
or a grievous injury. One of the most remarkable 
examples of the audacity of a lion is to be found in 
the Journal of a Settler at the Cape more than a 
century ago. The first settlement of the Dutch at 
Cape Town was in the year 1652: the site which 
they selected was on the southern edge of Table 
Bay, and the number of the settlers amounted only to 
a hundred persons. In half a century the colonists 
had greatly increased, and had driven the native 
Hottentots a considerable distance into the interior, 
among dry and barren tracts. This is the ordina- 
ry course of colonization. In 1705, the land- 
drost,* Jos. Sterreberg Kupt, proceeded on a jour- 

* A local magistrate. 



136 NATURAL HISTORY. 

ney into the country to procure some young oxen for 
the Dutch East India Company ; and he has left a 
very interesting journal of his expedition, which has 
been translated from the original Dutch, and pub- 
lished by the Rev. Dr. Philip, in his truly valuable 
Researches in South America. The account which 
the landdrost gives of the adventure of his compa- 
ny with a lion is altogether so curious, that we ex- 
tract it without abridgment : 

" Our wagons, which were obliged to take a 
circuitous route, arrived at last, and we pitched our 
tent a musket-shot from the kraal ; and, after having 
arranged everything, went to rest, but were soon 
disturbed : for, about midnight, the cattle and horses, 
which were standing between the wagons, began 
to start and run, and one of the drivers to shout, 
on which every one ran out of the tent with his 
gun. About thirty paces from the tent stood a lion, 
which, on seeing us, walked very deliberately about 
thirty paces farther, behind a small thornbush, 
carrying something with him, which I took to be a 
young ox. We fired more than sixty shots at that 
bush, and pierced it stoutly, without perceiving any 
movement. The southeast wind blew strong, the 
sky was clear, and the moon shone very bright, so 
that we could perceive everything at that distance. 
After the cattle had been quieted again, and I had 
looked over everything, I missed the sentry from 
before the tent, Jan Smit, from Antwerp, belonging 
to the Groene Kloof. We called as loudly as pos- 
sible, but in vain ; nobody answered ; from which I 
concluded that the lion had carried him off. Three 
or four men then advanced very cautiously to the 
bush, which stood right opposite the door of the 



THE LION. 137 

tent, to see if they could discover anything of the 
man, but returned helter skelter, for the lion, who 
was there still, rose up and began to roar. They 
found there the musket of the sentry, which was 
cocked, and also his cap and shoes. 

" We fired again about a hundred shots at the 
bush (which was sixty paces from the tent and only 
thirty paces from the wagons, and at which we 
were able to point as at a target) without perceiv- 
ing anything of the lion, from which we concluded 
that he was killed or had run away. This induced 
the marksman, Jan Stamansz, to go and see if he 
was there still or not, taking with him a firebrand. 
But as soon as he approached the bush, the lion 
roared terribly and leaped at him, on which he threw 
the firebrand at him ; and the other people having 
fired about ten shots, he retired directly to his for- 
mer place behind that bush. 

" The firebrand which he had thrown at the lion 
had fallen in the midst of the bush, and, favoured 
by the strong southeast wind, it began to burn with 
a great fiame, so that we could see very clearly 
into and through it. We continued our firing into 
it ; the night passed away, and the day began to 
break, which animated every one to aim at the lion, 
because he could not go from thence without ex- 
posing himself entirely, as the bush stood directly 
against a steep kloof. Seven men, posted on the 
farthest wagons, watched him to take aim at him 
if he should come out. 

" At last, before it became quite light, he walked 

up the hill with the man in his mouth, when about 

forty shots were fired at him without liitting him, 

although some were very near. Every time this 

M 2 



138 NATURAL HISTORY. 

happened he turned round towards the tent, and 
came roaring towards us ; and I am of opinion 
that, if he had been hit, he would have rushed on 
the people and the tent. 

" When it became broad daylight, we perceived, 
by the blood and a piece of the clothes of the man, 
that the lion had taken him away and carried him 
with him. We also found behind the bush the 
place where the lion had been keeping the man, and 
it appeared impossible that no ball should have hit 
him, as we found in that place several balls beaten 
flat. We concluded that he was wounded, and not 
far from this. The people therefore requested per- 
mission to go in search of the man's corpse in order 
to bury it, supposing that, by our continued firing, 
the lion would not have had time to devour much 
of it. I gave permission to some, on condition that 
they should take a good party of armed Hottentots 
with them, and made them promise that they would 
not run into danger, but keep a good look-out, and 
be circumspect. On this seven of them, assisted 
by forty-three armed Hottentots, followed the track, 
and found the lion about half a league farther on, 
lying behind a little bush. On the shout of the Hot- 
tentots, he sprang up and ran away, on which they 
all pursued him. At last the beast turned round, 
and rushed, roaring terribly, among the crowd. 
The people, fatigued and out of breath with their 
running, fired and missed him, on which he made 
directly towards them. The captain, or chief head 
of the kraal, here did a brave act in aid of two of 
the people whom the lion attacked. The gun of 
one of them missed fire, and the other missed his 
aim, on which the captain threw himself between 



THE LION. 139 

the lion and the people so close, that the lion struck 
his claws into the caross (mantle) of the Hottentot. 
But he was too agile for him, doffed his caross, and 
stabbed him with an assagai.* Instantly the other 
Hottentots hastened on, and adorned him with their 
assagais, so that he looked like a porcupine. Not- 
withstanding this, he did not leave off roaring and 
leaping, and bit off some of the assagais, till the 
marksman Jan St8-mansz fired a ball into his eye, 
which made him turn over, and he was then shot 
dead by the other people. He was a tremendously 
large beast, and had but a short time before carried 
off a Hottentot from the kraal and devoured him." 
The lion is remarkable for dulness of the sense 
of hearing, difficulty in being awakened, and the 
want of presence of mind which he displays when 
suddenly awakened. It is this peculiarity which 
enables the Bushmen of Africa to keep the country 
tolerably clear of lions, without encountering any 
great danger in their exertions. Dr. Philip has 
well described it : " The wolf and the tiger gener- 
ally retire to the caverns and ravines of the mount- 
ains, but the lion is most usually found in the open 
plain, and in the neighbourhood of the flocks of ante- 
lopes, which invariably seek the open country, and 
which manifest a kind of instinctive aversion to pla- 
ces in which their powerful adversary may spring 
upon them suddenly and unexpectedly. It has been 
remarked of the lion by the Bushmen, that he gener- 
ally kills and devours his prey in the morning at sun- 
rise, or at sunset. On this account, when they intend 

* The generous bravery of this man towards strangers offers 
a striking refutation of the calumnies against the Hottentot race, 
which the Dutch colonists employed to defend their cruel and 
treacherous persecutions. 



140 NATURAL HISTORY. 

to kill lions, they generally notice where the spring- 
bucks are grazing at the rising of the sun ; and by ob- 
serving, at the same time, if they appear frightened 
and run off, they conclude that they have been attack- 
ed by the lion. Marking accurately the spot where 
the alarm took place, about eleven o'clock in the day, 
when the sun is powerful, and the enemy they seek 
is supposed to be fast asleep, they carefully examine 
the ground, and, finding him in a state of unguarded 
security, they lodge a poisoned arrow in his breast. 
The moment the lion is thus struck, he springs from 
his lair and bounds off as helpless as the stricken 
deer. The work is done ; the arrow of death has 
pierced his heart, without even breaking the slum- 
bers of the lioness which may have been lying be- 
side him ; and the Bushman knows where, in the 
course of a few hours, or even less time, he will 
find him dead, or in the agonies of death."* 

We have thus traced the African lion as he ap- 
pears to the traveller in solitary districts of that im- 
mense continent, and where the presence of man 
may in some sort be considered an intrusion upon 
his legitimate empire. But the lion does not con- 
fine his range to the desert plains, trusting for a 
supply of food to the herds of antelopes and wild 
asses, which live far away from the abodes of man- 
kind. In the country of the Namaaquas, where 
there are numbers of Dutch settlers, he is often found 
prowling around the herds of the colonists. Mr. 
Barrow tells an interesting anecdote of the escape 
of a Hottentot from a lion, which pursued him from 
a pool of water where he was driving his cattle to 
drink, to an aloe-tree, in which the man remained 
for twenty-four hours, while the lion laid liimself 
* Philip's South Africa> vol. ii. 



THE LION. 141 

down at the foot. The perseverance of the beast 
was at length worn out by his desire to drink ; and 
in his temporal absence to satisfy his thirst, the 
Hottentot fled to his home about a mile off. The 
lion, however, returned to the aloe- tree, and tracked 
the man within three hundred paces of his house. 

Mr. Pringle, who had extraordinary opportunities 
of observing the habits of the half-civilized natives 
of Southern Africa, and of becoming acquainted 
with the characteristics of the wild beasts with 
which that part of the world abounds, has given us 
a very good description of a lion-hunt, in which he 
and several of his countrymen, all somewhat inex- 
perienced in such adventures, were engaged. Mr. 
Pringle was a settler on the eastern frontier of the 
Cape colony ; and in 1822 was residing on his farm, 
or " location," at Bavian's River. We should de- 
prive his account of a lion-hunt of its interest if we 
attempted to give it in any other than his own words : 

" One night a lion, that had previously purloined 
a few sheep out of my kraal, came down and killed 
my riding horse, about a hundred yards from the 
door of my cabin. Knowing that the lion, when he 
does not carry off his prey, usually conceals him- 
self in the vicinity, and is very apt to be dangerous 
by prowling about the place in search of more 
game, I resolved to have him destroyed or dislodged 
without delay. I therefore sent a messenger round 
the location, to invite all who were willing to as- 
sist in the enterprise to repair to the place of ren- 
dezvous as speedily as possible. In an hour every 
man of the party (with the exception of two pluck, 
less fellows who were kept at home by the women) 
appeared ready mounted and armed. We were 



142 NATURAL HISTORY. 

also re-enforced by about a dozen of the ' Bastaard' 
or Mulatto Hottentots, who resided at that tim^ 
upon our territory as tenants or herdsmen ; an active 
and enterprising, though rather an unsteady race 
of men. Our friends the Tarka boors, many of 
whom are excellent lion-hunters, were all too far 
distant to assist us, our nearest neighbours residing 
at least twenty miles from the location. We were, 
therefore, on account of our own inexperience, 
obliged to make our Hottentots the leaders of the 
chase. 

" The first point was to track the lion to his 
covert. This was effected by a few of the Hotten- 
tots on foot. Commencing from the spot where 
the horse was kiJled, they followed the spoor* 
through grass, and gravel, and brushwood, with as- 
tonishing ease and dexterity, where an inexperi- 
enced eye could discern neither footprint nor mark 
of any kind, until, at length, we fairly tracked him 
into a large bosch, or straggling thicket of brush, 
wood and evergreens about a mile distant. 

The next object was to drive him out of this 
retreat, in order to attack him in close phalanx, and 
with more safety and effect. The approved mode 
in such cases is to torment him with dogs till he 
abandons his covert, and stands at bay in the open 
plain. The whole band of hunters then march 
forward together, and fire deliberately one by one. 
If he does not speedily fall, but grows angry and 
turns upon his enemies, they must then stand close 
in a circle, and turn their horses rear-outward ; 
some holding them fast by the bridles, while the 
others kneel to take a steady aim at the lion as he 
* The Hottentot name for a footmark. 



THE LION. 143 

approaches, sometimes up to the very horses' heels ; 
couching every now and then, as if to measure the 
distance and strength of his enemies. This is the 
moment to shoot him fairly in the forehead or 
some other mortal part. If they continue to wound 
him ineffectually till he waxes furious and desperate ; 
or if the horses, startled by his terrific roar, grow 
frantic with terror and burst loose, the business 
becomes rather serious, and may end in mischief, 
especially if all the party are not men of courage, 
coolness, and experience. The frontier Boors are, 
however, generally such excellent marksmen, and, 
withal, so cool and dehberate, that they seldom fail 
to shoot him dead as soon as they get within a fair 
distance. 

" In the present instance we did not manage 
matters quite so scientifically. The Bastaards, 
after recounting to us all these and other sage laws 
of lion-hunting, were themselves the first to depart 
from them. Finding that the few indifferent hounds 
we had made little impression on the enemy, they 
divided themselves into two or three parties and 
rode round the jungle, firing into the spot where 
the dogs were barking round him, but without effect. 
At length, after some hours spent in thus beating 
about the bush, the Scottish blood of some of my 
countrymen began to get impatient ; and three of 
them announced their determination to march in 
and beard the lion in his den, provided three of the 
Bastaards (who were superior marksmen) would 
support them, and follow up their fire should the 
enemy venture to give battle. Accordingly, in they 
went (in spite of the warnings of some more prudent 
men among us) to within fifteen or twenty paces of 



144 NATURAL HISTORY. 

the spot where the animal lay concealed. He was 
couched among the roots of a large evergreen bush, 
with a small space of open ground on one side of 
it; and they fancied, on approaching, that they 
saw him distinctly, lying glaring at them from 
under the foliage. Charging the Bastaard.s to stand 
firm and level fair should they miss, the Scottish 
champions let fly together, and struck — not the 
lion, as it afterward proved, but a great block of 
red stone, beyond which he was actually lying. 
Whether any of the shot grazed him is uncertain ; 
but, with no other warning than a furious growl, 
forth he bolted from the bush. The pusillanimous 
Bastaards, in place of now pouring in their volley 
upon him, instantly turned, and fled helter-skelter, 
leaving him to do his pleasure upon the defenceless 
Scots ; who, with empty guns, were tumbling over 
each other in their hurry to escape the clutch of 
the rampant savage. In a twinkling he was upon 
them, and with one stroke of his paw dashed the 
nearest to the ground. The scene was terrific ! 
There stood the lion with his foot upon his prostrate 
foe, looking round in conscious power and pride 
upon the bands of his assailants, and with a port 
the most noble and imposing that can be conceived. 
It was the most magnificent thing I ever witnessed. 
The danger of our friends, however, rendered it at 
the moment too terrible to enjoy either the grand 
or the ludicrous part of the picture. We expect- 
ed every instant to see one or more of them torn 
in pieces ; nor, though the rest of the party were 
standing within fifty paces with their guns cocked 
and levelled, durst we fire for their assistance. 
One was lying under the lion's paw, and the other 



THE LION, 145 

scrambling towards us in such a way as to inter- 
cept our aim at him. All this passed far more 
rapidly than I have described it. But, luckily, the 
lion, after steadily surveying us for a few seconds, 
seemed willing to be quits with us on fair terms ; 
and with a fortunate forbearance (for which he met 
with but an ungrateful recompense), turned calmly 
away, and, driving the snarling dogs from beneath 
his heels, bounded over the adjoining thicket like 
a cat over a footstool, clearing brakes and bushes 
twelve or fifteen feet high as readily as if they had 
been tufts of grass, and, abandoning the jungle, re- 
treated towards the mountains. 

" After ascertaining the state of our rescued com- 
rade (who fortunately had sustained no other in. 
jury than a slight scratch on the back and a severe 
bruise in the ribs, from the force with which the 
animal had dashed him to the ground), we renewed 
the chase with Hottentots and hounds in full cry. 
In a short time we again came up with the enemy, 
and found him standing at bay under an old mimo- 
sa-tree, by the side of a mountain-stream, which 
we had distinguished by the name of Douglas Wa- 
ter. The dogs were barking round, but afraid to 
approach him, for he was now beginning to growl 
fiercely, and to brandish his tail in a manner that 
showed he was meditating mischief. The Hotten- 
tots, by taking a circuit between him and the 
mountain, crossed the stream and took a position 
on the top of a precipice overlooking the spot where 
he stood. Another party of us occupied a position 
on the other side of the glen ; and placing the poor 
fellow thus between two fires, which confused his 
attention and prevented his retreat, we kept batter- 
N 



146 NATUKAL HISTORY. 

ing away at him till he fell, unable again to grap- 
ple with us, pierced with many wounds. 

" He proved to be a full-grown lion of the yel- 
low variety, about five or six years of age. He 
measured nearly twelve feet from the nose to the 
tip of the tail. His foreleg below the knee was so 
thick that I could not span it with both hands ; and 
his neck, breast, and limbs appeared, when the skin 
was taken off, a complete congeries of sinews."*" 

We have thus contemplated the lion as described 
by intelligent travellers and close observers ; and 
we have seen the urgent necessity by which he is 
driven to" the destruction of animal life, and the 
terrible powers by which he accomplishes that de- 
struction. As the objects of his appetite, and the 
means which he employs for its gratification, are 
in themselves upon an ample scale, and thus fill the 
mind with an idea of great suffering inflicted by 
equal ferocity, so do we feel an instinctive shud- 
dering in reading of herds put to flight ; of some 
one trembling victim borne oiF to be torne to pieces 
by the beast in his lair ; of man even suddenly de- 
prived of existence by his desperate onset. Yet the 
same power and the same ferocity are constantly 
displayed before our eyes, though upon a smaller 
scale. The cat which springs upon the mouse is 
as formidable in its ability to injure, within its pe- 
culiar range, as the lion which carries away the 
antelope from his companions. The same in- 
stincts guide each to the same destruction of the 
lives of others of the animal creation. Throughout 
all nature we see the like necessities producing the 
* Notes to Pringle's Ephemerides. 



THE LION. 147 

like effects ; and those necessities have been con- 
sidered to form part of the general design, which 
has thus established a sort of counterpoise to the 
power and preponderance of any one individual 
condition of existence. At any rate, we can have 
no doubt, from an examination of the physical 
structure of carnivorous animals, that in the de- 
struction of life they fulfil the laws of their nature ; 
and, however imperfectly we may understand the 
ends of those laws, we cannot be insensible to the 
perfection of the means by which they are carried 
into execution. 

The invariable analogy between the teeth and 
the digestive organs of quadrupeds forms one of the 
most beautiful studies of Comparative Anatomy. 
The teeth that are made for tearing and cutting 
flesh, and fitted into jaws of great strength, incapa- 
ble of lateral motion, but closing together like a 
pair of shears, are always accompanied with a 
stomach of less complicated structure than that 
which is fitted for the more difficult digestion of ve- 
getable substances, particularly of grass, the most 
indigestible of all. In quadrupeds which devour 
their prey before absolute death has taken place, 
while the flesh is not yet set and the blood still 
warm, the stomach is of the most simple structure. 
In such animals, also, the intestines are much short- 
er than in those which feed entirely or partly on 
vegetables. For instance, in the lion, those intes- 
tinal parts which are called by anatomists the colon 
and ccpxum, are three feet nine inches long ; in the 
goat, a much smaller animal, they are twenty feet 
nine inches.* This simple stomach, and these 
* Home, vol. i,, p. 469. 



148 NATURAL HISTORY. 

short intestines are given to animals that are car- 
nivorous, because the gastric juice of the stomach 
is sufficient for the purpose of digestion without any 
more complicated process. There is no doubt that, 
by habit, a carnivorous quadruped, a domestic cat 
for instance, may be brought to eat vegetable food ; 
but an invariable preference v^ill be given by it to 
flesh. Upon the same principle of natural prefer- 
ence, a young hawk, which is fitted by the con- 
struction of its stomach for eating flesh, will cast 
(as the falconers term it), that is, will bring up 
the contents of its stomach, if two or three oats 
are mingled with its meat. We see, therefore, 
that if the teeth of a lion or a panther were able 
to bruise grass, as those of the ruminating animals 
are, their stomachs would be incapable of digesting 
it ; just in the same way that a sheep or a cow, if 
its teeth could tear flesh, would be rendered sick 
by eating that substance. To follow up the same 
mode of reasoning, the structure of the stomach of 
the lion being simpler than that of the hysena, we 
have to inquire what diflerence this circumstance 
produces in their habits ; and we find the difler- 
ence to be, that the one prefers to seize a living 
body for its food, the other is attracted by a pu- 
trid carcass. In the formation of each animal we 
have principally to seek for the reason of its ac- 
tions. 

With these facts before us, we cannot doubt that, 
in the natural state of the lion, the tiger, the leop- 
ard, and other quadrupeds of the cat tribe, animal 
food is not only necessary to their existence, but 
that their principal faculties must be directed to 
the object of capturing that food. It would ba 



THE LION. . 149 

contrary to the evidence we have constantly be- 
fore us of the completeness with which Nature 
works, to imagine that this ruling desire should be 
continually harassing the beast of prey, and that 
he should be provided with imperfect means for its 
gratification. An examination of the structure of 
the Hon, with reference to the admirable mechan- 
ism by which he is enabled to preserve his exist- 
ence, cannot fail to lead the mind to a conviction 
of the entire manifestation of design in this, as in 
every other work of the creation. 

The lion, as we have seen, principally lives in 
the plains, and is always found where there are 
large herds of wild antelopes and quaggas feeding 
together, in that fellowship which is characteristic 
of each species. To all these animals he is an ob- 
ject of unceasing dread. It is supposed, by the 
agitation which oxen display when a lion is near 
them, that they can scent him at a considerable dis- 
tance. Whatever may be his physical strength, 
therefore, and we know that it is prodigious, it is 
evident he could not accomplish his purposes by 
strength alone. The instinctive fear of the crea- 
tures upon which he preys would be constantly 
called into action by their keen sight and acute 
scent; and they would remove to some distan 
part before the destroyer could reach them. The 
lion, too, as well as the tiger, and others of the 
same species, seldom runs. He either walks or 
creeps, or, for a short distance, advances rapidly 
by great bounds.* It is evident, therefore, that he 
must seize his prey by stealth ; that he is not fit- 
ted for an open attack ; and that his character i$ 
* Wilson's Illustrations of Zooloary. 

N2 



150 NATURAL HISTORY. 

necessarily that of great power united to consider- 
ble wariness in its exercise. 

Many are familiar with the roar of the lion. It 
is a sound of terror, and produces an appalling ef- 
fect. It is said by travellers that it sometimes re- 
sembles the sound which is heard at the moment 
of an earthquake ; and that he produces this extra, 
ordinary effect by laying his head upon the ground, 
and uttering a half-stifled growl^ by which means 
the noise is conveyed along the earth.* The in- 
stant this roar is heard by the animals who are 
reposing in the plains, they start up with alarm ; 
they fly in all directions ; they rush into the very 
danger they seek to avoid. This fearful sound 
which the lion utters is produced by the great com- 
parative size of the larynx,')* the principal organ of 
voice in all animals.:}: He utters it to excite that 
fear which is necessary to his easy selection of an 
individual victim. 

The lion, as well as all of the cat tribe, takes his 
prey at night ; and it is necessary, therefore, that 
he should have peculiar organs of vision. In all 
those animals which seek their food in the dark, 
the eye is usually of a large size, to admit of a greater 
number of rays ; and that part which is called the 

* Burchell, vol. ii. 

+ That part of the throat which forms the upper part of the 
trachea (windpipe). It is composed of five cartilages. The 
protuberance of the larynx in the human subject is popularly 
called " Adam's apple." 

t " The size of the larynx is proportionate to the strength of 
the sounds which the animals utter. The absolute size of the 
larynx of the whale and the elephant is the largest, but rela- 
tively the larynx of the lion has a still greater circumference." 
^-Notes to Bluraenbach'9 Comp. Anat., by Lawrence and Coul- 
8on. 1827. 



THE LION. 151 

choroides reflects, instead of absorbing, the light. 
The power of seeing in the dark, which the cat 
tribe possesses, has always appeared a subject of 
mystery ; and it is natural that it should be so, for 
man himself sees with more difficulty in the dark 
than any other animal : he has a compensation in 
his ability to produce artificial hght. There were 
formerly two opinions on the subject of the cat's 
eye : the one that the external light only is reflect* 
ed, the other that light was generated in the eye 
itself. Professor Bohn, of Leipsic, made experi- 
ments, however, which proved that, when the ex- 
ternal light is wholly excluded, none can be seen 
in the cat's eye ; and it is now established that the 
illumination is wholly produced by the external rays 
of light, which, after being concentrated by those 
parts which are called the cornea and the crystal' 
line lens, are reflected in a brilliant concave mirror 
at the bottom of the eye, called the tajpetumJ^ This 
effect may be constantly seen in the domestic cat. 
In the strong light of day the iris is contracted, so 
that a very small quantity of light is admitted to 
this mirror ; but in the twilight the iris opens, and 
then the mirror being completely exposed, the eye 
glares in the manner with which we are all fa- 
miliar. The construction, therefore, of the eye of 
the cat tribe enables them to collect in one focus 
whatever rays of light there may be ; and few pla- 
ces are so dark but that some light may be found ; as 
we know, when we have gone into a cellar, where 
the darkness at first appears impenetrable, but 
where, even with our differently constructed or- 
gan of vision, we soon distinguish objects without 
* See Home, vol. iii., p. 243. 



152 NATURAL HISTORY. 

difficulty. This peculiar eye, therefore, Is neces.- 
sary to the lion to perceive his prey ; and he creeps 
towards it with a certainty which nothing but this 
distinct nocturnal vision could give. 

Every one must have observed what are usually 
called the whiskers on a cat's upper lip. The use of 
these in a state of nature is very important. They 
are attached to a bed of close glands under the 
skin, and each of these long and stiff hairs is 
connected with the nerves of the lip.* The slight- 
est contact of these whiskers with any surrounding 
object is thus felt mosx distinctly by the animal, al- 
though the hairs are themselves insensible. They 
stand out on each side in the lion as we^^ as the 
common cat, so that, from point to point, they are 
equal to the width of the animal's body. If we 
imagine, therefore, a lion stealing through a covert 
of wood in an imperfect light, we shall at once see 
the use of these long hairs. They indicate to him, 
through the nicest feeling, any obstacle which may 
present itself to the passage of his body ; they pre- 
vent the rustle of boughs and leaves, which would 
give warning to his prey if he were to attempt to 
pass through too close a bush ; and thus, in con- 
junction with the soft cushions of his feet and the 
fur upon which he treads (the retractile claws 
never coming in contact with the ground), they en- 
able him to move towards his victim with a stillness 
greater even than that of the snake that creeps 
along the grass, and not perceived till he has coil- 
ed round his prey. 

We must carry our minds to the point when all 
these preliminarj^arrangements for bringing the 
* Cuvier, Anat. Comp., Le9on xiv., Art. vi. 



THE LION. 15a 

lion within reach of some devoted animal have been 
successful. The quagga is quietly listening for the 
sound of his scattered companions. At some twen- 
ty feet from him is the lion crouching and prepa- 
ing for the spring. The flexibility of his vertebral 
column allows him to throw himself upon his prey 
with prodigious swiftness, by the exercise of mus- 
cular power ; and this power is so great, that the 
compression of the muscles upon the principal ar- 
tery of the shoulder would produce a derangement 
of the animal's system, if that circumstance were 
not provided against by a most singular and beau- 
tiful expedient. The os humeri (the bone of the 
shoulder) is perforated in the lion tribe, to give a 
more direct course to the brachial artery, that it 
may not be compressed by the muscles when call- 
ed into extraordinary action by the violence with 
which their prey is seized.* The muscles of the 
lion's fore -leg are unusually firm, and so are those 
of the thigh of a fighting cock.*j" This is a pecu- 
liar character of the muscles of animals whose hab- 
its are those of combat or of catching prey. Flex- 
ible as the joints of the larger species of the cat 
•tribe are, they are knit together by the remarkable 
strength of the muscles ; and no other provision 
would at once produce that pliancy and firmness 
which particularly characterize the limbs of the 
lion in the act of seizing his victim, and give both 
a grace and a power to all his ordinary move- 
ments. 

The weight of the lion's body, as compared with 
his size, is very remarkable ; and this is produced 
by the extraordinary density of his muscles and 
* Home, vol i., p. 76, | Home, vol. i., p. 34. 



154 NATURAL HISTORY. 

the compactness of his principal bones. The force, 
therefore, with which he must alight after a bound 
of fifteen or twenty feet, must be obvious. The 
compensation against the jar produced by such a 
leap is remarkable. In the treatise on Animal 
Mechanics, in the Library of Useful Knowledge, it 
is shown how the number of bones in the human 
foot, arranged in a great number of joints, produ- 
ces the elasticity which is required in its compli- 
cated movements. The lion's foot has nearly the 
same number of bones as the human, answering, of 
course, the same end.* But as the cat tribe are 
exposed, from their modes of hfe, to much more 
violent jars upon the foot than man, so are they 
furnished with a peculiar provision still farther to 
break the force of a fall or of a leap. In the do- 
mestic cat, we constantly observe the natural facil- 
ity with which the tribe balance themselves when 
springing from a height ; and this facility has giv- 
en rise to the popular opinion that a cat will always 
fail upon its feet. The power of balancing them- 
selves, whether leaping to or from an elevation, is 
in some degree produced by the flexibility of the 
heel, the bones of which have no fewer than six • 
joints. But the softness with which the cat tribe 
alight on their feet arises from an admirable ar- 
rangement of that Wisdom which fits every crea- 
ture for its peculiar habits. In the middle of the 
foot there is placed a large ball or pad, in five parts, 
formed of an elastic substance, intermediate in 
structure between cartilage and tendon ; and at the 
base of each toe is a similar pad. It is impossible 
* Home, vol. i., p. 125. 



THE LION. 155 

to imagine any mechanism more calculated to break 
the force of a fall. 



The same mechanism has been discovered in 
several species of grasshoppers and locusts, whose 
habit of jumping is vi^ell known ; and in which the 
structure is evidently for the purpose of taking off 
the jar, when the body of the insect is suddenly 
brought from a state of motion to a state of rest. 
In a species of gryllus brought from Abyssinia by 
Mr. Salt, the feet are made up of three joints : on 
the under surface of the first are three pairs of glob- 
ular cushions, filled with an elastic fibrous sub- 
stance, looser in its texture towards its circumfer- 
ence, which renders it more elastic ; under the 
second joint is one pair of similar cushions ; and 
under the last joint, immediately between the 
claws, is a large oval sucker.* This sucker is for 
the purpose of supporting the insect against gravity ; 
a mechanism which the fly possesses. "j* A British 
species of grasshopper {acryoUum higutlulum) has 
the same cushions and the same oval sucker as 
the grasshopper from Abyssinia. The following 

* Home, vol. iii., p. 202. 

t See Preliminary Treatise to the Library of Useful Know' • 
edge. 



156 NATURAL HISTORY. 

engraving of the foot of this species is magnified 
two thousand five hundred times. 




This similarity of structure, for similar purposes, 
in the lion and the grasshopper, offers a remarka- 
ble example of the uniformity of the contrivances 
of Nature, which, however different be the applica- 
tion, always attain the required end by the sim- 
plest means. 

We have seen, in an extract from Mr. Burchell's 
travels, that when his dogs attacked a lion, two of 
them were killed by a very slight movement of the 
lion's paw. We must attribute this circumstance 
to the remarkable hardness of the bone of the fore- 
leg. The texture of this bone is so compact, for the 
purpose of resisting the powerful contraction of the 
muscles, that the substance will strike fire with 
steel.* This hardness is produced, according to 
the testimony of Mr. Hatchett, a distinguished 
chymist, by the degree of closeness of the fibres 
of which the bone is composed. From its extra- 
ordinary hardness, it was thought that the bone of 
the lion's fore-leg was of a peculiar chymical com- 
position ; but Mr. Hatchett has also shown that it 
only contains a larger proportion of phosphate of 
lime than is found in ordinary bones. Different 
bones of other animals vary also in their degree of 
compactness, and are hard in proportion to the 
weight which the bone is required to support, or 
* Home, v., 354. 



THE LION. 157 

the exertion which it is destined to make. Thus 
the fore feet of a race-horse and of a deer are very 
small, but unusually hard. The hardness of the 
bone of the Hon's foreleg is, therefore, not only 
necessary to bear the great muscular strain upon 
it, but it forms a powerful instrument of destruction. 
It will batter in a horse's scull as if it were a 
sledge-hammer. 

The strength of the lion's jaws, the power of the 
muscles which move the lower jaw, and the con- 
struction of his teeth for tearing, cutting, and crush- 
ing animal matter, are popularly known. 

There is one peculiar distinction of the lion, as 
well as of all his congeners { animals of the same 
family), which deserves a particular attention. The 
most obtuse sense of this branch of carnivorous 
quadrupeds is that of taste. According to Des- 
moulins, the lingual nerve of the lion is not larger 
than that of a middle-sized dog. The tongue of 
all animals of the cat kind is an organ of mastica- 
tion as well as of taste. Observe a lion with a 
bone : whatever flesh his teeth leave on it is scra- 
ped away by the sharp and horny points, incli- 
ning backward, of his tongue. This circumstance 
would render it impossible that the lion, or any of 
the larger beasts of the same family, could lick the 
hand of a man, as we read in some fables, without 
tearing away the skin. The cut on the following 
page is a greatly magnified representation of a por- 
tion of the lion's tongue. 

We have thus, somewhat more particularly than 
will be our usual practice, gone through several of 
the most striking peculiarities of the lion's struc- 
ture. His conformation is evidently designed for 




158 NATURAL HISTORY. 




the destruction of animal life. We have noticed 
the roar by which he rouses his prey ; the eye by 
which he sees it in the dark ; the sensitive whis- 
kers, and the cushioned foot, by which he creeps 
upon it without noise ; the great physical force by 
which the spring upon the victim is performed, and 
the provision against any injury from the exercise 
of that force ; vhe powerful instrument with which 
he strikes his prey, in itself most hard and mass- 
ive, and armed with retractile claws ; the teeth, 
the jaw, the prickly tongue, by which he is ena- 
bled to satisfy his appetite. AH these properties 
form a part of the condition of his existence ; and 
it should be borne in mind that the very nature of 
his food has a tendency to preserve his charac- 
ter unaltered ; to support his enormous muscu- 
lar strength ; to perpetuate his sanguinary habits. 
The study of Comparative Anatomy, from which 
science we have collected this account of some of 
the peculiarities of the structure of the lion, con- 
stantly presents objects of similar interest. Galen, 
when studying human anaton.y, was so struck with 



THE LION. 159 

the perfection with which all the parts of the human 
arm and hand are adapted to one another, that he 
composed a hymn to the Deity, expressing his ad. 
miration of a piece of so much excellence. The 
more we extend our researches into the animal 
kingdom, the more shall we be struck with this 
extraordinary adaptation of the parts of living 
bodies to their respective uses ; the more shall 
we be convinced, by our own imperfect knowl- 
edge, of the perfection of that Wisdom and Power, 
whose works are as marvellous as they are un- 
bounded. 



160 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

TIGER, LEOPARD, OCELOT, LYNX, PUMA, AND DO- 
MESTIC CAT. 




The Tiger. Felis tigriSf LlNN^US. 

The above is the portrait of a remarkably fine 
tiger, exhibited in 1829 at Atkins's Menagerie. 
This creature is particularly gentle, permitting 
liberties from its keepers which are not so often al- 
lowed by the tiger in captivity as by the lion. 
Nothing can be more beautiful than the power 
and freedom of its movements, or better indicate 



THE TIGER. 161 

tliat force and agility which have so long been 
the dread of the inhabitants of our Indian posses- 
sions. 

The Tiger commonly called the Royal Tiger is 
a native of Bengal, the kingdoms of Siam and of 
Tonquin, of China, of Sumatra, indeed of all the 
countries of Southern Asia situated beyond the In- 
dus and extending to the north of China. The 
species has long been most abundant in those coun- 
tries ; while the Asiatic lion, on the contrary, has 
only been known within a few years. The average 
height of the tiger is about three feet, and the length 
nearly six feet. The species, however, varies con- 
siderably in size ; and individuals have often been 
found much taller and longer than the lion. The 
peculiar markings of the tiger's skin are well known. 
On a ground of yellow, of various shades in differ- 
ent specimens, there is a series of black transverse 
bars, varying in number from twenty to thirty, and 
becoming black rings on the tail, the number of 
which is, almost invariably, fifteen. There are 
oblique bands, also, on the legs. The pupils of the 
eye are circular. 

Buffon has described the tiger, and so have many 
other naturalists, as a creature which, in compari- 
son with the lion, deserves all the hatred of man- 
kind, and none of their admiration. " To pride, 
courage, and strength, the lion joins greatness, 
clemency, and generosity ; but the tiger is fierce 
without provocation, and cruel without necessity." 
Thus writes the most eloquent of naturalists, taking 
up prejudices instead of attending to facts, and using 
his real information for the support of a false theo- 
ry. Similar in anatomical construction, the tiger 
03 



162 NATURAL HISTORY. 

and the lion are similar in their habits ; they are 
equally cats, driven by their conformation to the 
destruction of animal life. The tiger, perhaps, ia 
somewhat more dangerous, for he has more activ- 
ity than the lion ; the clemency and generosity of 
both are doubtless equal. There is, however, this 
difference in their characters, which is in favour 
of the lion. He assists the female in rearing their 
young ; the tiger deserts her. The tiger species 
will also destroy each other, and a female has 
been known to eat her cubs ; but even this is not 
uncommon with the domestic cat. Redi says, de- 
scribing a menagerie, " Among several curious 
foreign animals was a female tiger, with a cub a 
few months old in the same cage. This kind 
mother, upon coming towards Florence, whether 
out of sport or fury I will not undertake to say, 
seizing the cub in her teeth, broke its leg, and sever- 
ed it from the joint. When she perceived the limb 
thus separated from the body, she devoured it most 
voraciously, although there was abundance of flesh 
in the cage besides." Yet the general affection of 
the tigress for her cubs cannot be doubted. Cap- 
tain Williamson, in his work on " Oriental Field 
Sports," mentions that two tiger cubs were brought 
to him while stationed in the Ramghur district 
in India. They had been found, with two others, 
by some country people, during the absence of the 
mother. Being put in a stable, they made a loud 
noise for several nights, till at length the tigress 
arrived to their rescue, and replied to them by the 
most fearful bowlings. The cubs were at last let 
loose, in apprehension that their mother would 
break in ; and in the morning it was found that 



THE TIGER. 163 

she had carried them off to the neighbouring jun- 
gle. 

As European civilization has advanced in India, 
the race of tigers, the scourge of the country, has 
gradually become less numerous. The Hindoos 
seldom voluntarily attempt to hunt the tiger, al- 
though he invades their houses and carries off their 
cattle, and very often the poor people themselves, 
whenever there is a village in the neighbourhood 
of an uncleared waste overgrown with reeds and 
bushes, called a jungle. The caste of Shecarries, 
whose business is hunting, are not numerous enough 
to accomplish this destruction effectually. The ac- 
tive courage of Europeans will generally remove 
the evil. Some years ago the island of Cossimbu- 
zar was almost completely cleared of the tigers by 
a German named Paul, of great muscular strength 
and undaunted courage, who devoted himself to 
their extermination. This man is said to have shot 
five tigers in one day. His rifle never failed ; and 
his success was such in this destruction of the 
scourge of the country, that the enormous over- 
grown wastes, which had almost been surrendered 
without a struggle to those ferocious creatures, 
were soon changed into fertile agricultural dis- 
tricts. 

The tiger, like the lion, springs upon its prey 
from an ambush ; and, in most cases, he is easily 
terrified by any sudden opposition from human be- 
ings. A party in India were once saved from a 
tiger by a lady opening an umbrella as she saw 
him about to spring. In narrow passes in Hindos- 
tan travellers have often been seized by tigers, 
or a bullock or horse has fallen a victim to the fe- 



164 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



rocity of the prowling beast. Horses have such a 
dread of the tiger, that they can scarcely ever be 
brought to face him. Hunting him, therefore, on 
horseback is a service of great danger. The ele- 
phant, on the contrary, though considerably agita^ 
ted, will stand more steadily while his rider antici- 
pates the fatal spring by a shot which levels the 
tiger to the earth. One peculiarity of the tiger is 
his willingness to take to the water, either when 
pursued, or in search of the prey which he espies 
on the opposite bank of a river. 

The late Bishop Heber, in his journal, has given 
a narrative of the mode in which a tiger hunt is 
conducted, full of picturesque effect, and striking 
from its minute detail : 

" At Kulleanpoor, the young raja, G our man 
Singh, mentioned in the course of conversation that 
there was a tiger in an adjoining tope which had 
done a good deal of mischief; that he should have 
gone after it himself had he not been ill, and had 
he not thought it would be a fine diversion for Mr. 
Boulder son, the collector of the district, and me. I 
told him I was no sportsman ; but Mr. Boulder- 
son's eyes sparkled at the name of tiger, and he 
expressed great anxiety to beat up his quarters in 
the afternoon. Under such circumstances, I did 
not like to deprive him of his sport, as he would 
not leave me by myself, and went, though with no 
intention of being more than a spectator. Mr. 
Boulderson, however, advised me to load my pistols 
for the sake of defence, and lent me a very fine 
double-barrelled gun for the same purpose. We 
set out a little after three on four elephants, with a 
servant behind each howdah, carrying a large chat- 



THE TIGER. 165 

ta, which, however, was almost needless. The 
raja, in spite of his fever, made his appearance too, 
saying that he could not bear to be left behihd. A 
number of people, on foot and horseback, attended 
from our own camp and the neighbouring villages, 
and the same sort of interest and delight was evi- 
dently excited which might be produced in England 
by a great coursing party. The raja was on a 
little female elephant, hardly bigger than a Durham 
ox, and almost as shaggy as a poodle. She was a 
native of the neighbouring wood, where they are 
generally, though not always, of a smaller size 
than those of Bengal and Chittagong. He sat in a 
low howdah,* with two or three guns ranged beside 
him ready for action. Mr. Boulderson had also a 
formidable apparatus of muskets and fowling-pieces 
projecting over his mohout's head. We rode about 
two miles across a plain covered with long jungly 
grass, which very much put me in mind of the 
country near the Cuban. Quails and wild-fowl 
arose in great numbers, and beautiful antelopes 
were seen scudding away in all directions." 

The bishop then describes the beating of the 
jungle, the rushing out of two curious animals of 
the elk kind, called the "mohr," and the growing 
anxiety of all the people engaged in the hunt. He 
then proceeds thus : 

" At last the elephants all drew up their trunks 
into the air, began to roar, and stamp violently with 
their fore -feet. The raja's little elephant turned 
short round, and, in spite of all her mohout (her dri- 
ver) could say or do, took up her post, to the raja's 

♦ The howdah is a seat somewhat resembling the body of a 
gig, and is fastened by girths to the back of the elephant. " 



166 NATURAL HISTORY^ 

great annoyance, close in the rear of Mr. Boulder- 
son. , The other three (for one of my baggage ele- 
phants had come out too, the mohout, though un- 
armed, not caring to miss the show) went on slow- 
ly, but boldly, with their trunks raised, their ears 
expanded, and their sagacious little eyes bent in- 
tently forward. ' We are close upon him,' said 
Mr. Boulderson ; ' fire where you see the long 
grass shake, if he rises before you.' Just at that 
moment my elephant stamped again violently. 
^ There, there,' cried the mohout, ' 1 saw his head.' 
A short roar, or, rather, loud growl followed, and I 
saw immediately before my elephant's head the 
motion of some large animal stealing through the 
grass. I fired as directed, and a moment after, 
seeing the motion still more plainly, fired the sec- 
ond barrel. Another short growl followed; the 
motion was immediately quickened, and was soon 
lost in the more distant jungle. Mr. Boulderson 
said, * I should not wonder if you hit him that last 
time ; at any rate, we shall drive him out of the 
cover, and then I will take care of him.' In fact, 
at that moment the crowd of horse and foot spec- 
tators at the jungle side began to run off in all di- 
rections. We went on to the place, but found it 
was a false alarm ; and, in fact, we had seen all we 
were to see of him, and went twice more through 
the jungle in vain. * * * * 

" I asked Mr. Boulderson, on our return, whether 
tiger-hunting was generally of this kind, which I 
could not help comparing to that chace of bubbles 
which enables us in England to pursue an otter. 
In a jungle, he answered, it must always be pretty 
much the same, inasmuch as, except under very 



THE TIGBE. J67 

peculiar circumstances, or when a tiger felt himself 
severely wounded, and was roused to revenge by 
despair, his aim was to remain concealed, and to 
make off as quietly as possible. It was after he 
had broken cover, or when he found himself in a 
situation so as to be fairly at bay, that the serious 
part of the sport began, in which case he attacked 
his enemies boldly, and always died fighting. He 
added that the lion, though not so large or swift 
an animal as the tiger, was generally stronger and 
more courageous. Those which have been killed 
in India, instead of running away when pursued 
through a jungle, seldom seem to think its cover 
necessary at all. When they see their enemies 
approaching, they spring out to meet them, open- 
mouthed, in the plain, Hke the boldest of all ani- 
mals, a mastiff dog. They are thus generally shot 
with very little trouble ; but if they are missed or 
only slightly wounded, they are truly formidable 
enemies. Though not swift, they leap with vast 
strength and violence ; and their large heads, im- 
mense paws, and the great weight of their body 
forward, often enable them to spring on the head 
of the largest elephants, and fairly pull them down 
to the ground, riders and all. When a tiger springs 
on an elephant, the latter is generally able to shake 
him off under his feet, and then wo be to him. 
The elephant either kneels on him and crushes him 
at once, or gives him a kick which breaks half his 
ribs, and sends him flying perhaps twenty paces. 
The elephants, however, are often dreadfully torn ; 
and a large old tiger sometimes clings too fast to 
be thus dealt with. In this case it often happens 
that the elephant himself falls, from pain or from 



168 NATURAL HISTORY. 

the hope of rolling on his enemy ; and the people 
on his back are in very considerable danger, both 
from friends and foes ; for Mr. Boulderson said the 
scratch of a tiger was sometimes venomous, as that 
of a cat is said to be. But this did not often hap- 
pen ; and, in general, persons wounded by his teeth 
or claws, if not killed outright, recovered easily 
enough. '^ 

There appears to be no greater difficulty in ren- 
dering the tiger docile than the lion. As the sov- 
ereign of Persia has his tame lions, so have the fa- 
quirs, or mendicant priests of Hindostan, their tame 
tigers. These will accompany them in their walks, 
and remain, without attempting to escape, in the 
neighbourhood of their huts. The tigers in mena- 
geries appear, with a few exceptions, to be ordina- 
rily under as complete control as the species which, 
for so long a time, has been supposed to possess all 
the generous virtues of the genus fells. 

Several keepers of menageries during the last 
few years have succeeded in obtaining a mixed 
breed between the lion and the tiger. Mr. Atkins 
has exhibited cubs, produced at various times, by 
the union of the lion with the tigress. In Septem- 
ber, 1828, we saw two lion-tiger cubs in his exhi- 
bition, which had been whelped at Edinburgh on 
the 31st of December, 1827. Their general colour 
was not so bright as that of the tiger species, and 
the transverse bands were rather more obscure. 
The little animals were very playful, and the moth- 
er was most tractable, suffering the keeper to en- 
ter the den and exhibit her cubs to the spectators. 



THE TIGER. 



169 



In the autumn of 1829 this tigress was exhibited 
in the same den with her cubs and with the Hon ; 
and the wonder of every spectator was excited by 
the gentleness of the whole group, who clustered in 
fondness round the keeper, and displayed their ex- 
traordinary power of leaping, with the readiest 
obedience to his commands. 

The tigress produces three or four cubs at a lit- 
ter. 




Lion- Tiger Cubs, 

p 






170 



NATURAL HISTOHY. 




The Leopard. Felis Leopardus, LlNN^Us. 

The average length of the leopard is under four 
feet, and his height is about two feet. The gener- 
al colour of his skin and the arrangement of the 
spots are exceedingly beautiful. The yellowish fawn 
ground, which gradually becomes a perfect white 
on the under parts of the body, is covered with 
black spots, of a round or oval form, on the head, 
neck, limbs, and back ; while on the sides and part 
of the tail the spots unite in ten ranges of distinct 
roses, surrounding a central area of a somewhat 
deeper colour than the general ground. In the 
Panther there are only six or seven ranges of 
these roses. 

The natural habits of the leopard, like those of 
all the cat tribe, are compounded of ferocity and 



THE LEOPARD. 171 

cunning. He preys upon the smaller animals, such 
as antelopes, sheep, and monkeys ; and he is ena- 
bled to secure his food with great success, from the 
extraordinary flexibility of his body. The leopards 
in the Tower of London, who have a tolerably 
large cage, bound about with the quickness of a 
squirrel, so that the eye can hardly follow their 
movements. In Africa they are sometimes found 
of extraordinary size and rapacity. Their rela. 
tive size principally distinguishes the leopard and 
the panther, the latter being ordinarily the larger. 
M. Cuvier considers them distinct species, although 
they are doubtless often mistaken by travellers, 
from their great similarity. 

We have been favoured, by a gentleman who 
was formerly in the civil service at Ceylon, with 
the following description of an encounter with a 
leopard or panther, which in India are popularly 
called tigers : 

"I was at Jaffna, at the northern extremity of 
the island of Ceylon, in the beginning of the year 
1819, when, one morning, my servant called me 
an hour or two before my usual time, with ' Master, 
master ! people sent for master's dogs ; tiger in the 
town !' Now my dogs chanced to be some very 
degenerate specimens of a fine species called the 
Poligar dog, which I should designate as a sort of 
wiry-haired greyhound, without scent. I kept them 
to hunt jackals ; but tigers are very different things ; 
by-the-way, there are no real tigers in Ceylon ; but 
leopards and panthers are always called so, and by 
ourselves as well as by the natives. This turned 
out to be a panther. My gun chanced not to be 
put together ; and while my servant was doing it, 



172 NATURAL HISTORY. 

the collector and two medical men, who had re- 
cently arrived, in consequence of the cholera mor- 
bus having just then reached Ceylon from the Con- 
tinent, came to my door, the former armed with a 
fowling-piece, and the two latter with remarkably 
blunt hog- spears. They insisted upon setting off 
without waiting for my gun, a proceeding not much 
to my taste. The tiger (I must continue to call 
him so) had taken refuge in a hut, the roof of which, 
as those of Ceylon huts in general, spread to the 
ground Hke an umbrella ; the only aperture into it 
w^as a small door about four feet high. The col- 
lector wanted to get the tiger out at once. I beg- 
ged to wait for my gun ; but no, the fowling-piece 
(loaded with ball, of course) and the two hog-spears 
were quite enough. I got a hedge-stake, and await- 
ed my fate from very shame. At this moment, to 
my great delight, there arrived from the fort an 
English officer, two artillerymen, and a Malay 
captain ; and a pretty figure we should have cut 
without them, as the event will show, I was now 
quite ready to attack, and my gun came a minute 
afterward. The whole scene which follows took 
place within an enclosure, about twenty feet square, 
formed on three sides by a strong fence of palmyra 
leaves, and on the fourth by the hut. At the door 
of this the two artillerymen planted themselves ; 
and the Malay captain got at the top, to frighten 
the tiger out by unroofing it ; an easy operation, 
as the huts there are covered with cocoanut leaves. 
One of the artillerymen wanted to go in to the ti- 
ger, but we would not suffer it. At last the beast 
sprang ; this man received him on his bayonet, 
which he thrust apparently down his throat, firing 



THE LEOPARD. 173 

his piece at the same moment. The bayonet broke 
off short, leaving less than three inches on the mus- 
ket ; the rest remained in the animal, but was in- 
visible to us : the shot probably went through his 
cheek, for it certainly did not seriously injure him, 
as he instantly rose upon his legs, with a loud roar, 
and placed his paws upon the soldier's breast. At 
this moment the animal appeared to me to about 
reach the centre of the man's face ; but I had 
scarcely time to observe this, when the tiger, stoop- 
ing his head, seized the soldier's arm in his mouth, 
turned him half round, staggering, threw him over 
on his back, and fell upon him. Our dread now 
was, that if we fired upon the tiger we might kill 
the man : for a moment there was a pause, when 
his comrade attacked the beast exactly in the same 
manner as the gallant fellow himself had done. 
He struck his bayonet into his head ; the tiger rose 
at him ; he fired ; and this time the ball took effect, 
and in the head. The animal staggered backward, 
and we all poured in our fire. He still kicked and 
writhed ; when the gentlemen with the hog-spears 
advanced and fixed him, while some natives finish- 
ed him by beating him on the head with hedge- 
stakes. The brave artilleryman was, after all, 
but slightly hurt : he claimed the skin, which was 
very cheerfully given to him. There was, however, 
a cry among the natives that the head should be 
cut off: it was ; and, in so doing, the knife came 
directly across the bayonet. The animal measured 
scarcely less than four feet from the root of the tail 
to the muzzle." 

The leopard of India is called by the natives the 
" tree tiger," from its habit of ascending a tree 
P2 



174 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



when pursued, or for the purpose of enabUng it to 
spring securely on its prey. It is doubtless able to 
effect this ascent by the extraordinary flexibility of 
its limbs, which give it the power of springing up- 
ward ; for, in the construction of the feet, it has no 
greater facilities for climbing than the lion or the 
tiger. It cannot clasp a branch like the bear, be- 
cause the bone called the clavicle is not sufficiently 
large to permit this action. The Indian hunters 
chase the leopard to a tree : but even in this ele- 
vated spot it is a task of great difficulty to shoot 
him ; for the extraordinary quickness of the crea^ 
ture enables him to protect himself by the most 
rapid movements. The Africans catch this specie^ 
in pitfalls, covered over with slight hurdles, upon 
which there is placed a bait. In some old writers 
on Natural History there are accounts of the leop- 
ard being taken in a trap by means of a mirror, 
which, when the animal jumps against it, brings 
down the door upon him. This story may have 




received some sanction from the disposition of the 
domestic cat, when young, to survey her figure in 
a looking-glass. 



THE PUMA. 



175 




Puma. Felis coiicoIoTj Linn^US. 

The puma is a native of the New World, and is 
principally found in Paraguay, Brazil, and Guiana. 
He is, however, often seen in the United States ; 
but there, as in every other part of the world, civili- 
zation daily lessens the range of those animals 
which live by the destruction of others. The puma, 
in its natural state, is a sanguinary creature, at- 
tacking the smaller quadrupeds, and often destroy- 
ing more than can be necessary for the satisfaction 
of his appetite. He is alarmed at the approach of 
men or of dogs, and flies to the woods, where he 
mounts trees with great ease. He belongs to the 
same division of cats as the lion, by the essential 



176 NATURAL HISTORY 

character of the unspotted colour of his skin, which 
is of a reddish-yellow or silvery-fawn ; but, unlike 
the lion, he is without a mane, and the tail has no 
tuft. The average length of the puma is about four 
feet, and its height about two feet. It stands lower 
on the legs than the lion, and the head is round and 
small. 

The puma, which was long called the American 
lion, though a large animal, is not an object of 
great dread to the natives of the regions to which 
he belongs. He is easily tamed. D'Azara, the nat- 
uralist, had one which was as sensible to caresses 
as the common cat ; and Mr. Kean, the tragedian, 
had a domesticated puma, which was much attached 
to him. Although there have been instances of the 
puma attacking and even destroying the human 
species, in South America they have an instinctive 
dread of any encounter of this nature. Captain 
Head, in his " Journey across the Pampas," has the 
following interesting anecdote of the puma, which, 
in common with other travellers, he incorrectly 
calls the lion : 

" The fear which all wild animals in America 
have of man, is very singularly seen in the Pampas, 
I often rode towards the ostriches and zamas, 
crouching under the opposite side of my horse's 
neck ; but I always found that, although they would 
allow any loose horse to approach them, they, even 
when young, ran from me, though little of my fig- 
ure was visible ; and when one saw them all enjoy- 
ing themselves in such full liberty, it was at first 
not pleasing to observe that one's appearance was 
everywhere a signal to them that they should fly 
from their enemy. Yet it is by this fear that * man 



THE ruMA. 177 

hath dominion over the beasts of the field/' ana 
there is no animal in South America that does not 
acknowledge this instinctive feeling. As a singu- 
lar proof of the above, and of the difference between 
the wild beasts of America and of the Old World, 
I will venture to relate a circumstance which a 
man sincerely assured me had happened to him in 
South America. 

^' He was trying to shoot some wild ducks, and, 
in order to approach them unperceived, he put the 
corner of his poncho ( which is a sort of long nar- 
row blanket) over his head, and crawling along the 
ground upon his hands and knees, the poncho not 
only covered his body, but trailed along the ground 
behind him. As he was thus creeping by a large 
bush of reeds, he heard a loud, sudden noise be- 
tween a bark and a roar : he felt something heavy 
strike his feet, and, instantly jumping up, he saw, 
to his astonishment, a large lion actually standing 
on his poncho ; and perhaps the animal was equally 
astonished to find himself in the immediate presence 
of so athletic a man. The man told me he was un- 
willing to fire, as his gun was loaded with very 
small shot ; and he therefore remained motionless, 
the lion standing on his poncho for many seconds : 
at last the creature turned his head, and walking 
very slowly away about ten yards, he stopped and 
turned again : the man still maintained his ground, 
upon which the lion tacitly acknowledged his su- 
premacy and walked off." 

We have thus described the structure and appear, 
ance, and traced the habits of several species of 
the cat tribe ; and have particularly seen that the 
invariable characteristic of the race — of whatever 



178 NATURAL HISTORY. 

form, of whatever colour, of whatever physical 
power the individual variety may be — is a ruling 
desire for the destruction of animal life. In some 
species this desire is carried into action with more 
boldness, in others with more cunning ; but in all 
there is a mixture of cunning and boldness, more 
or less mingled with a suspicion which assumes the 
appearance of fear, the unchanging property of all 
treacherous natures. The creature which lies at 
our fireside, leaps upon our table, sits upon our 
knee, purs round our legs, attends us at our meals, 
never forsakes our houses, and altogether appears 
as if it could only exist in dependance upon man — 
the domestic cat— is precisely of the same nature 
as the leopard or the puma. In this case, unlike 
that of the dog, there is no doubt which is the ori- 
ginal head of the domesticated stock. The wild 
cat of the European forests is the tame cat of the 
European houses ; the tame cat would become wild 
if turned into the woods ; the wild cat at some pe- 
riod has been domesticated, and its species has been 
established in almost every family of the old and 
new continent. 

The domestic cat has been multiplied with the 
multiplication of the small noxious animals that fol- 
low the progress of civilization. As man erects 
houses, these animals seek therein shelter and food. 
Without the cat, this would have been, and would 
still be, a most serious evil. The fecundity of mice 
would make them the most troublesome inmates of a 
family ; and their attacks upon every eatable sub. 
stance would cause a great diminution of the pro- 
duce of human industry. It would be difficult to 
trace the period when the wild cat was first brought 



i 



Tllfi CAT. 179 

from the woods, where it preys upon the birds, and 
fieldmice, and leverets, and young rabbits, with as 
much avidity as the Hon hunts after antelopes and 
oxen. But there must have been a period when it 
first occurred to man that the instincts of this ani- 
mal might be subdued to his uses. In the ruder 
ages of society — in the tenth and eleventh centu- 
ries, for instance — we find domestic cats very 
scarce ; and laws were then passed against their 
mutilation, and other regulations made, which show 
the importance attached to their preservation. In 
the Collection of Welsh Statutes (Leges Wallice) 
may be found the value of a cat of every age, and 
of each degree of adroitness and vigour. The pas- 
sion for animal food, or, rather, the desire to destroy 
a living animal, is the quality which makes the cat 
valuable to man. Domestication does not extin- 
guish the passion ; for the pampered inmate of the 
parlour does not forget its nightly prowl through 
every part of a house where mice can come ; and 
the consequence is, that we are, to a great degree, 
unmolested by these troublesome visiters, who would 
be quite as offensive, though not so dangerous, 
as the numberless varieties of ferocious creatures 
which the dog has so materially assisted us in sub- 
duing or exterminating. 

The wild cat {felus catus) is much about the size 
of the ordinary cat ; and is of a gray colour, marked 
with black stripes, longitudinal on the back, and 
transverse on the flanks ; the lips and soles of the 
feet black ; the tail marked with rings, with a black 
tip. The domestic cat (felis catus domesticus) has 
no essential external variation from the wild stock, 
except, perhaps, in the great brilliancy of its col- 



yO NATURAL HISTORY. 

ours. The lips and the soles of the feet are also 
constantly black, as well as the end of the tail. 
There is, however, this peculiarity in the domestic 
species ; it is not entirely carnivorous, for it will 
readily eat bread and other vegetable matter : and, 
following up the constant analogy between habit 
and structure, we find the intestines of the tame 
proportionably longer than those of the wild vari- 
ety. Domestic cats, too, will devour insects. 
Quadrupeds seldom prey upon insects, although the 
anteater is an exception, as well as the mole ; and 
the common hedgehog has lately been domesticated 
in London, for the more complete destruction of 
black beetles than can be effected by cats or traps 
of glass. 

It would be a singular inquiry, though somewhat 
difficult, to ascertain what qualities the cat has lost 
by domestication, and what it has acquired. Some 
of its instincts appear perfect as in the natural state,^ 
some more matured, and some nearly subdued. 
The same cruelty belongs to the domestic cat as 
the wild ; that instinct is never subdued. But the 
range of its food is limited by its hereditary habits 
of domestication. There is no doubt that wild cats 
will seize on fish ; and the passionate longing of 
the domestic cat after that food is an evidence of 
the natural desire. We have seen a cat overcome 
her habitual reluctance to wet her feet, and seize 
an eel out of a pail of water. Dr. Darwin alludes 
to this propensity : " Mr. Leonard, a very intelH- 
gent friend of mine, saw a cat catch a trout by dart- 
ing upon it in a deep clear water, at the mill at 
Weaford, near Lichfield. The cat belonged to 
Mr. Stanley, who had often seen her catch fish in 



THE CAT. 181 

the same manner in summer, when the millpool 
was drawn so low that the fish could be seen. I 
have heard of other cats taking fish in shallow wa- 
ter as they stood on the bank. This seems to be 
a natural method of taking their prey, usually lost 
by domestication, though they all retain a strong 
relish for fish." Some of their instincts are un- 
changed by domestication, although they have 
ceased to be of use ; and a habit of reasoning does 
not so completely become mixed with the instinct 
as in the dog. 

The ability of cats to seize upon their ordinary 
prey, mice or birds, does not appear to lose any- 
thing by domestication. The extraordinary pa- 
tience with which a cat will watch a mousehole 
for hours, is doubtless a natural property. This 
determined bending of the will to one object is 
probably a principal cause of the fascination 
which some serpents possess. In a very agreea- 
ble book recently published, " The Journal of a 
Naturalist," we find several instances of this pow. 
er being exercised by hawks upon smaller birds. 
The author of that journal says, " There can be no 
doubt of the fact that instinctive terror will subdue 
the powers of some creatures, j-endering them stu- 
pified and motionless at the sudden approach of 
danger. Cats, in some degree, are supposed to 
possess this power of terrifying their prey. Mon- 
taigne gives a story illustrative of the notion : 

" There was at my house, a little while ago, a 
cat seen watching a bird upon the top of a tree, 
and for some time they mutually fixed their eyes 
upon each other. At length the bird let herselj 
fall dead into the cat's claws, either dazzled and as- 
Q 



182 NATURAL HISTORY. 

tonished by the force of imagination, or drawn by 
some attractive power in the cat. This is similar 
to the story told of the falconer, who, having earnestly 
fixed his eyes upon a kite in the air, laid a wager that 
he would bring her down by the power of sight 
alone, and succeeded, as it was said ; for, when I 
borrow a tale of this kind, I charge it upon the 
conscience of those from whom I have it."* There 
is no doubt that a mouse will sometimes suddenly 
yield itself to the power of its enemy, Montaigne 
very properly doubts the story of the falconer ; 
though the human eye has certainly great power, 
particularly in warding off the attack of a dog or 
a cow. 

One of the most remarkable properties of a do- 
mestic cat is the anxiety with which it makes it- 
self acquainted, not only with every part of its usual 
habitation, but with the dimensions and external 
quahties of every object by which it is surrounded. 
Cats do not very readily adapt themselves to a change 
of houses ; but we have watched the process by 
which one, whose attachment to a family is consid- 
erable, reconciles itself to such a change. He sur- 
veys every room in the house, from the garret to 
the cellar ; if a door is shut, he waits till it be open- 
ed to complete the survey ; he ascertains the rel- 
ative size and position of every article of furniture ; 
and when he has acquired this knowledge, he sits 
down contented with his new situation. It appears 
necessary to a cat that he should be intimately ac- 
quainted with every circumstance of his position, 
in the same way that a general first examines the 
face of the country in which he is to conduct his 
* Essays, i., 20. 



THE CAT, 183 

operations. If a new piece of furniture, if even a 
large book or portfolio, is newly placed in a room 
which a cat frequents, he walks round it, smells it, 
takes note of its size and appearance, and then 
never troubles himself farther about the matter. 
This is, probably, an instinctive quality ; and the 
wild cat may, in the same way, take a survey of 
every tree or stone, every gap in a brake, every 
path in a thicket, within the ordinary range of its 
operations. The whiskers of the cat, as we have 
mentioned in the case of the lion, enable it to as- 
certain the space through which its body may pass, 
without the inconvenience of vainly attempting such 
a passage. 

The memory of a cat must be very strong, to 
enable it to understand this great variety of local 
circumstances after a single observation. The 
same power of memory leads this animal, much as 
its affection may be doubted, to know the faces of 
individuals. We have seen a cat exhibit manifest 
delight upon the return of its master, or of a per- 
son from whom it had received peculiar kindness. 
There are several instances of strong attachment 
to the human race in cats, though in number and 
intensity they fall far short of the attachment of 
the dog. They have sometimes, also, great affec- 
tion to other animals, which becomes a reciprocal 
feeling. The celebrated horse, the Godolphin Ara- 
bian, and a black cat, were for many years the 
warmest friends. When the horse died in 1753, 
the cat sat upon his carcass till it was put under 
ground ; and then, crawling slowly and reluctantly 
away, was never seen again till her dead body was 
found in a hayloft.* Stubbs painted the portraits 
* Lawrence's History of the Horse, p. 109. 



184 NATURAL HISTORY. 

of the Arabian and the cat. There was a hunter 
in the kmg's stables at Windsor, to which a cat 
was so attached, that, whenever he was in the sta- 
ble, the creature would never leave her usual seat 
upon the horse's back ; and the horse was so well 
pleased with the attention, that, to accommodate his 
friend, he slept, as horses will sometimes do, stand- 
ing. This, however, was found to injure his health, 
and the cat was removed to a distant part of the 
country. 

The attachment of domestic cats to human indi- 
viduals is by no means universal with the species, 
nor, indeed, is it very common. The cat, to a cer- 
tain extent, knows the voice and person of its mas- 
ter ; and, what is singular, cats have antipathies to 
particular individuals. The effects of discipline 
upon the cat are very inferior to the influence of 
chastisement or caresses upon the dog. The dog, 
when he is beaten or reproved for a particular of- 
fence, seldom repeats it ; the cat, as far as we have 
seen, can never be prevented importuning for food ; 
jumping upon you, sitting in your chair, clamber- 
ing upon a table, tearing furniture, scratching 
up plants, however constantly it may be beaten 
for these annoyances. Cats may be taught to per- 
form tricks, such as leaping over a stick, but they 
always do such feats unwillingly. There is an ex- 
hibition of cats in London, where the animals, at 
the bidding of their master, an Italian, turn a wheel, 
draw up a bucket, ring a bell, and in doing these 
things, begin, continue, and stop as they are com- 
manded. But the he gin, continue, stop of their 
keeper is always enforced with a threatening eye, 
arid often with a severe blow ; and the poor crea- 



THE CAT. 185 

tures exhibit the greatest reluctance to proceed 
with their unnatural employments. They have a 
subdued and piteous look ; but the scratches upon 
their master's arms show that his task is not al- 
ways an easy one. 

A strong affection for her young ordinarily pre- 
vails in the female cat ; and the feeling has some- 
times produced an unusual foresight. The follow- 
ing fact is mentioned to us as having recently oc- 
curred. A short time before a cat produced kit- 
tens, she was observed to hoard up several mice 
and young rats, which she did not quite kill, but 
lamed, so as to prevent their escaping. One day, 
after dinner, when our informant was sitting with 
a friend, the cat bounced into the room in eager 
chase of one of her maimed prisoners ; a young rat, 
which had, as it appeared from the report of the 
servants, been some days under surveillance in a 
back court. The rat sprung up the window-cur- 
tain for safety ; but, being unable to retain its po- 
sition, was soon recaptured. This was a refine- 
ment of cruelty which peculiarly marks the species ; 
it was carrying the odious habit of torturing its 
prey, which is characteristic of the cat, to a dis- 
gusting extent. 

It is by no means uncommon among the insect 
tribes to secure live prey for their future offspring. 
The ichneumon fly, for example, lays its eggs in the 
body of a live caterpillar, and the larvae thence pro- 
duced feed on it without kiUing it, till their trans- 
formation into pupfB. The sphex also, or sand- 
wasp, when it makes a nest, encloses in it a supply 
of live grubs, proportioned to the wants of the fu- 
ture offspring. The circumstances respecting the 
Q2 



186 NATURAL HISTORY. 

cat (which was verified in several instances) would 
not have been so remarkable had it occurred after 
she had had kittens ; but the prospective provision, 
whether for her own or their subsistence, is well 
worthy of notice. The same strength of maternal 
feeling sometimes induces cats which have lost their 
kittens to continue for a week or two to bring mice 
and other provision to their bed, in expectation of 
the return of the kittens. A gentleman informed 
us, that more than a fortnight after his cat had been 
deprived of her kittens, she came in with a mouse, 
and searched all over the house for them with the 
prey, making a complaining noise. 

These circumstances, which indicate the desire 
which the female cat has for the preservation of 
her young, are not incompatible with the well-known 
fact of her rearing the young of other animals. 
The exercise of the maternal duties is always a 
strong gratification ; and it is not, therefore, won- 
derful that if the opportunity is suddenly withdrawn, 
the desire should adapt itself to any accidental 
means of satisfaction, however strange. We have 
many instances of this. Mr. White gives two well- 
known examples in his history of Selborne, of a cat 
supporting a leveret and squirrels; and Dr. Dar. 
win has the following account of a similar circum- 
stance : " At Elford, near Lichfield, the Rev. Mr. 
Sawley had taken the young ones out of a hare 
which had been shot. They were alive ; and his 
cat, which had just lost her own kittens, carried 
them away, as it was supposed, to eat them ; but 
it presently appeared that it was affection, not hun- 
ger, which incited her, as she suckled them and 
brought them up as their mother," 



THE CAT. 187 

The following anecdote, of a similar nature, has 
been communicated to us upon authority which we 
cannot doubt : A cat and a bitch, belonging to a 
lady, chanced to have young at the same time. 
The cat, not liking the place assigned her for her 
kittens, carried them, without having been perceived, 
into a drawer containing clothes, which was soon 
afterward pushed in, and the kittens imprisoned in 
it. In the mean while, the bitch, having gone out 
of doors, was either stolen or killed, as she never 
returned to her pups. These were found out and 
adopted by the cat. A day or two after this sin- 
gular adoption, the kittens were discovered in the 
drawer, so nearly starved that they all died, except 
one, within a week. The cat, however, continued 
to nurse both this one and her adopted pups till they 
were full grown. 

One of the most remarkable peculiarities of the 
domestic cat is the property which its fur possesses 
of yielding electric sparks by rubbing. In frosty 
weather this is occasionally very extraordinary. 
During the severe cold of January last, we several 
times received a very acute electrical sensation upon 
merely touching a large black cat lying before a 
fire. Mr. White says, speaking of the frost of 1785, 
*' during these two Siberian days, my parlour cat 
was so electric, that, had a person stroked her and 
been properly insulated, the shock might have been 
given to a whole circle of people." 

It is a very prevalent notion that cats are fond of 
sucking the breath of infants, and, consequently, of 
producing disease and death. Upon the slightest 
reflection, nothing can be more obvious than that 
it is impossible for cats to suck an infant's breath, 



188 NATURAL HISTORY. 

at least so as to do it any injury ; for even on the 
supposition that they did so, the construction of their 
mouth must preclude them from interrupting the 
process of breathing by the mouth and the nose 
at the same time. The vulgar notion must have 
arisen from cats nestling about infants in beds and 
cradles to procure warmth. Cats are particularly 
solicitous to be comfortably placed as to tempera- 
ture. In winter they get before the fire to sleep ; 
in summer they seek the shade of a tree, where 
the air is fresh and cooHng. 

The cat ordinarily breeds thrice in a year, and 
goes with young fifty-five or fifty-six days. She 
brings forth four or five kittens, which she nourishes 
for some weeks with great care. The average du- 
ration of a cat's life is about fifteen years. 



The following is the scientific character of the 
carnivorous genus Felis, which is found in Europe, 
Asia, Africa, and America, but which has not yet 
been recognised in Australasia : 

Arrangement of the teeth : 

Incisors, |, Canine, {z{, Molar, |-Z|-, or |-Zf . 
Total, 30, or 28. 
The head round ; the tongue covered with sharp 
prickles, pointing backward ; the ears pointed ; the 
pupils of the eye sometimes contracting in a verti- 
cal line, sometimes in a circle ; three toes on the 
hind feet, and four on the front, each armed with a 
retractile claw, which is completely retractile on the 
fore feet. 



THE CAMEL. 



189 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE CAMEL. 




The Arabian Camel. Camelus Dromedarius^ LiNN-flEUS. — Drorti' 
edaire, BuFFON et G. CuviER. 

The camel has been created with an especial 
adaptation to the region wherein it has contributed 
to the comfort, and even to the very existence of 
man, from the earhest ages. It is constituted to 
endure the severest hardships with Httle physical 
inconvenience. Its feet are formed to tread hghtly 
upon a dry and shifting soil ; its nostrils have the 



190 NATURAL HISTORY. 

capacity of closing, so as to shut out the driving 
sand when the whirlwind scatters it over the desert ; 
it is provided with a pecuUar apparatus for retain- 
ing water in its stomach, so that it can march from 
well to well without great inconvenience, although 
they be several hundred miles apart. And thus, 
when a company of eastern merchants cross from 
Aleppo to Bussorah, over a plain of sand, which 
offers no refreshment to the exhausted senses, the 
whole journey being about eight hundred miles, the 
camel of the heavy caravan moves cheerfully along, 
with a burden of six or seven hundred weight, at 
the rate of twenty miles a day ; while those of 
greater speed, that carry a man without much other 
load, go forward at double that pace and daily dis- 
tance. Patient under his duties, he kneels down 
at the command of his driver, and rises up cheer- 
fully with his load ; he requires no whip or spur 
during his monotonous march ; but, like many other 
animals, he feels an evident pleasure in musical 
sounds ; and, therefore, when fatigue comes upon 
him, the driver sings some cheering snatch of his 
Arabian melodies, and the delighted creature toils 
forward with a brisker step till the hour of rest ar- 
rives, when he again kneels down to have his load 
removed for a little while ; and, if the stock of food 
be not exhausted, he is farther rewarded with a few 
mouthfuls of the cake of barley which he carries 
for the sustenance of his master and himself. Un- 
der a burning sun, upon an arid soil, enduring great 
fatigue, sometimes without food for days, and sel- 
dom completely slacking his thirst more than once 
during a progress of several hundred miles, the 
camel is patient, and apparently happy. He ordi- 



THE CAMEL. 191 

narily lives to a great age, and is seldom visited by 
any disease. And v/hy is this ? He lives accord, 
ing to his peculiar nature ; while with us, as we 
sometimes see him in our streets, his nature is out- 
raged even by the greater care taken to provide 
for what are considered his physical wants. 

The camel with one hump, which we ordinarily 
call the dromedary, has been reared at one place 
in Europe for two centuries ; this place is Pisa in 
Italy. His habits are there, to a certain extent, 
the same as in his native region ; but the soil and 
climate of Europe are ill adapted to his organiza- 
tion. The camels of Pisa have degenerated ; they 
are weaker than those of the East ; and their lives 
are of comparatively short duration. This circum- 
stance is a convincing proof that the natural local- 
ity of the camel is an arid and thirsty region, offer- 
ing little vegetable food, and that little of the coars- 
est kind. That region comprises Arabia, all the 
northern district of Africa, which extends in length 
from Egypt to Mauritania, and in breadth from the 
Mediterranean Sea to the River Senegal ; Egypt, 
Abyssinia, Persia, Southern Tartary, and parts of 
India. Over this extensive region is the camel 
spread ; and here he has formed the best posses, 
sion of the people from the time of the patriarchs. 
He is called Djemal by the Arabs, and Gamal by 
the Hebrews. The Bactrian camel with two 
humps is much more rare ; and this species is 
principally found in Turkistan, which is the ancient 
Bactri, and in Thibet, as far as the frontiers of 
China. 

The accounts of the natural history of the camel, 
and especially of its habits, which we find in east- 



192 NATURAL HISTORY. 

ern travellers, are somewhat vague ; and this is to 
be ascribed to the extraordinary abundance in which 
the animal is found. The naturalist or man of 
letters, who travels with a caravan consisting of 
many hundred camels, is struck with the general 
effect of objects so new and so extraordinary, with- 
out inquiring into the details of their individual pe- 
culiarities. In the same way, if a foreigner who 
had never seen a horse were brought to London, 
his imagination would be impressed by the vast 
number and the beauty of these animals when em- 
ployed by the wealthy and luxurious ; by their great 
strength and usefulness when drawing the heavy 
wagons of commerce ; and perhaps by their wretch- 
ed appearance when, as is too often the case, worn 
out with service, they drag on a painful existence 
in humbler employments, ill fed, beaten, exposed to 
every change of the seasons, and tasked beyond 
their strength. But he would learn little of the 
personal history of these horses, of their pecuhari- 
ties of breed, of their modes of nourishment, of 
their training, of their sagacity, of their generous 
courage, of their affection to their masters. Much 
of this sort of individual anecdote we want in the 
general accounts of the camel ; though, by compa- 
ring various slight and incidental notices of travel- 
lers in Asia and Africa, we may be able to collect 
many curious and valuable particulars of the habits 
of the animal. 

The camel with one hump is distinguished by 
naturalists as the camelus dromedarius. The term 
dromedary properly applies to a very swift spe- 
cies of camel. The name of KafJbrjXog dpofiag (fleet 
camel) was given by Strabo and Diodorus Siculus 



THE CAMEL. 193 

to a single race of the species, of great speed, 
now called by the Arabs el heirie. Obtaining the 
word dromedary from dromas, we have popularly, 
and even scientifically, applied it to the species. 
A dromedary is to a camel what a racer is to a 
horse of burden. There are one-humped and 
two-humped dromedaries, and one-humped and two- 
humped camels. 

The lean and almost fleshless body of the camel 
is covered with hair, which is very short on the 
forepart of the muzzle : this becomes longer on the 
top of the head, and almost tufty on the neck and 
parts of the fore legs, on the back, and particularly 
on the hump, which it covers all over. The tail 
is also thick with hair, which extends considerably 
beyond the vertebrae. The colour of the hair 
varies : it is either white, with a slight tint of rose- 
colour, gray, bay, or dark brown approaching to 
black. The hair falls off, and is renewed every 
year about the end of spring and the commence- 
ment of summer. 

M. Santi has described the peculiar excitation 
of the camel for about two months of the year, 
February and March. During this period these 
patient and gentle creatures, particularly the male, 
become restless and ferocious ; will bite their 
keepers ; and fight among themselves with their 
teeth and feet. 

The female camel goes with young between 
eleven and twelve months, at the end of which time 
she has one foal. 

Of the mode of breaking and training the camel 
by the people of the East, we have no complete 
account. M. Santi supplies this information with 
R 



194 NATURAL HISTORY. 

regard to those of Tuscany. At the age of four 
years, a camel which is intended for labour is 
broken in. The trainers first double up one of his 
fore legs, which they tie fast with a cord ; they 
then pull the cord, and thus usually compel the 
animal to fall upon his bent knee. If this does 
not succeed, they tie up both legs, and he falls upon 
both knees, and upon the callosity which is upon 
his breast. They often accompany this operation 
with a particular cry, and with a slight blow of a 
whip. At this cry and blow, with the addition of 
a sudden jerk downward of his halter, the camel 
gradually learns to lie down upon his belly, with 
his legs doubled under him, at the command of his 
driver. The trainers then accustom him to a 
pack-saddle, and place on it a load, at first light, 
but increased by degrees as the animal increases 
in docility ; till at last, when he readily Hes down 
at the voice of his driver, and as readily rises up 
with his load, his education is so far complete. 
The burden of a fall-grown camel is sometimes 
four hundred kilogrammes (above 800 lbs.) ; but 
such a load, if we may judge by other accounts, is 
excessive. 

He is accustomed, in the same gradual manner, 
to allow his driver to mount, and to obey all his 
orders, and even his motions, in the direction of 
his course. M. Santi says, that it is neither a 
tedious nor a difficult task thus to subdue an ani- 
mal of a timid and gentle nature, without defence, 
and whose spirit has been broken by a long course 
of slavery. The camel is sometimes oppressed by 
the loads which are placed upon him when he is 
kneeling before his driver, and he expresses hk 



THE CAMEL. 195 

displeasure. M. Denon, who travelled in Egypt 
during the expedition of Napoleon, and published 
a splendid work illustrative of the manners and an- 
tiquities of the country, has given us a spirited 
sketch of a camel thus suffering and irritated. 
" He cries out," says M. Denon, " when he is either 
laden too heavily or laden unequally. This good 
animal complains only of injustice, and then it must 
be extreme for him to complain at all." 

The camel has seven callosities, upon which he 
throws the weight of his body, both in kneeling 
down and rising up. These consist of one on the 
breast, two on each of the fore legs, and one on 
each of the hind. He sleeps always with his knees 
bent under his body and his breast upon the ground. 
Some naturalists have contended that these callosi- 
ties are produced by the constant friction to which 
the parts are exposed upon which they grow, in the 
same way that a tight shoe will produce a corn. 
M. Santi saw these seven callosities upon a camel 
just born ; and he is unwilling to believe that they 
are an hereditary effect of the labour to which the 
species has been subjected for many centuries. 
This is an opinion which these naturalists have 
adopted, and it has been echoed by historians : Gib- 
bon says the camel bears marks of servitude. For 
the same reason, that he is born with it, M. Santi 
doubts the opinion which has also been expressed, 
that the hump on the back of the camel is an hered- 
itary effect of constant pressure upon that part. 
We are only acquainted with the domesticated 
camel ; for although M. Desmoulins, a distinguish- 
ed French naturalist, asserts that the camel ex- 
isted in a wild state in Arabia in the time of 



196 NATURAL HISTORY. 

Adrian (A.D. 117), and the natives of Central 
Africa maintain that they are to be found wild in 
the mountains where Europeans have never pene- 
trated, it is highly probable that these statements 
refer to individual camels wandering from the con- 
trol of man. We know nothing distinctly of the 
camel but as one of the most useful and important 
servants of the human race ; and, therefore, we 
have no means of contrasting a wild with a domes- 
ticated species. But, in the absence of positive 
evidence to the contrary, it is more easy to believe 
that the original organization of the camel should 
have been adapted to the services to which it is 
destined, than that the services should have altered 
the organization. The callosities enable the ani- 
mal to receive its load (in the only position in 
which man could put on that load), by preventing 
the fracture of its skin by the pressure either when 
it rises up or kneels down ; and the hump on the 
back is so far from being a callosity produced by 
friction, that it is a soft, fatty substance, which is 
gradually absorbed into the system when the ani- 
mal is without food, and is renewed when he ob, 
tains pasturage ; an evident proof that it is one of 
the several admirable provisions which he possess- 
es for his support in the desert. We could as 
readily believe that the wonderful mechanism of 
the camel's stomach, by which it is enabled to ab- 
stain from water for many days, is a result of its 
habits, instead of its powers of abstinence being a 
consequence of this construction, as that its hump 
and its callosities are merely hereditary badges of 
its subjection to man ; and yet this opinion, mon- 
strous as it is, has been adopted by a distinguished 



THE CAMEL. 197 

naturalist, as we shall have occasion more particu- 
larly to notice. 

The uses which the camel has served in the civ- 
ilization of mankind, in those countries of the East 
where civilization first commenced, have been of 
such importance that they would fairly enter into 
the scheme of a wise and beneficent Providence. 
Unless such an animal had existed in Asia (a 
country intersected by immense arid plains, and 
impassable with burdens except by a creature pos- 
sessing at once great strength and an extraordi- 
nary capacity of enduring privation), the intercourse 
of mankind would have been confined to small 
spots where abundance reigned ; the commodities 
of one part of that immense region could not have 
been exchanged for those of another ; commerce, 
the great moving principle in the extension of civ- 
ilization, would have been unknown ; and knowl- 
edge would have been limited to particular districts, 
and would there have been of the most stunted and 
feeble growth, in the same way that a native crab- 
stock produces sour and worthless fruit, till some 
slip from the tree of another climate is grafted upon 
it. Thus, instead of the learning of the Hindoos 
and the Egyptians being communicated from one 
region to the other,* and thence, spreading over 
Greece, becoming the imperishable possession of 
the human race ; and instead of the produce of the 
East being brought to the West, to induce that 
taste for comforts and luxuries which principally 
develops the human intellect, that portion of man- 
kind which was first civiHzed would probably at 
this day have been in the same state of ignorance 
* See Frederic Schlegel's History of Literature, 
R2 



198 NATURAL HISTORY. 

as the Indians of South America, whose communi- 
cations are cut off by sandy deserts and inaccessible 
mountains, and who thus beUeve that the affairs of 
their mission (a settlement of a few hundred natives 
under a priest) comprise everything that can be of 
interest to any individual of the great family of man. 

Asia is, without doubt, the original country of 
the camel. The earliest mention of commerce in 
the Sacred Writings is associated with the cara- 
vans. When the brethren of Joseph had cast him 
into a pit, " they sat down to eat bread ; and they 
lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold a com- 
pany of Ishmaelites ca^x from Gilead, with their 
camels bearing spicery, and balm, and myrrh, go- 
ing to carry it down to Egypt."* It would appear, 
from this mention of spices, and from the more 
particular notice of cinnamon in the third chapter 
of Exodus, that the products of India were exported 
into Egypt and Palestine ; for cinnamon is an ex- 
clusive production of India, although the ancients 
erroneously supposed this spice, as well as all the 
other spicies of commerce, to have grown in Ara- 
bia. The Arabians were the great carriers, in the 
early times, of the valuable produce of the Indian 
peninsula. Isaiah speaks of the commerce of Sa- 
bsea or Sheba (Arabia Felix) : " The merchants of 
Sheba and Ramah, they were thy merchants ; they 
occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and 
with all precious gold and stones." This com- 
merce was probably, for many centuries, entirely 
carried on by land, and chiefly by the agency of 
the camel ; but we learn from the Journal of Ne- 
archus, a navigator of the time of Alexander the 
* Genesis, c. xxxvii., v. 25. 



THE CAMEL. 199 

Great, whose work has come down to us, and has 
been adi^irably translated and commented upon 
by Dr. Vincent, that the Arabians, three hundred 
years before Christ, traded to India by sea. In the 
time of Phny, this active people had considerable 
factories on the coasts of Malabar and Ceylon. 
The Arabians carried their merchandise across the 
deserts to Egypt ; and while they thus possessed a 
monopoly of the Indian trade as regarded Egypt, 
the Egyptians held the same monopoly as regarded 
Europe. 

The camel of Asia is frequently mentioned, not 
only by sacred but profane writers, as connected 
with the warlike operations of the Eastern people 
as well as with their commerce. It was a custom 
of the nations of Jadea, when they went to battle, 
to adorn their camels with studs and collars of gold : 
^' And Gideon arose, and slew Zebah and Zalmun- 
na, and took away the ornaments that were on their 
camels' necks."* The same practice of adorning 
camels is said to prevail at the present day in many 
of the countries or Asia. In Egypt the camel was 
known from the earliest antiquity ; for in the twelfth 
chapter of Genesis we find it stated that Pharaoh 
bestowed camels upon Abram when he came with 
his wife into that country. 

In the countries of the East, among the many 
remarkable contrasts which the natural productions 
and the customs of the people present to those of 
Europe, there is nothing more striking than the 
universal employment of the camel. It is not ne- 
cessary to penetrate into the interior of Asia to 
witness this great change in the mode by which 
♦ Judges, c. viii., v. 21. 



200 NATURAL HISTORY, 

commercial operations are conducted. For in- 
stance, the merchant who visits the seaport of 
Smyrna, the great point of traffic between the 
Franks and the Turks, sees this new animal power 
everywhere around him, performing those services 
which he has been accustomed to observe executed 
by the horse and the mule ; and even superseding, 
and rendering unnecessary, that great medium of 
more advanced communication, canal carriage. 
Burckhardt, the celebrated traveller, says, " In coun- 
tries where camels are bred in great numbers, land- 
carriage is almost as cheap as that by water. The 
carriage for a camel-load of goods, weighing from 
six to seven hundred pounds English, from Bagdad 
to Aleppo, a distance of six hundred miles, is four 
pounds."* All labour, of course, is cheaper in 
countries where the people are contented with 
scanty fare, and know nothing of those luxuries 
which almost the meanest among us enjoy ; but 
the great abundance of camels, and the easy rate 
at which they are maintained, render this animal 
power the readiest instrument of commercial in- 
tercourse. The use of it is therefore universal 
throughout Asia Minor, a country where consider- 
able trading adventures are carried on, and from 
which Europeans, and particularly the English, de- 
rive large supplies of the valuable productions of a 
fertile soil and a delicious climate. 

The Turks, who are idle and luxurious, and af- 
fect a contempt for the quiet virtues, call the Ar- 
menians, whom they despise as a patient and drudg- 
ing race, camels. This is a compliment both to 
the poor animals and the Armenians, for the cam- 
* Twenty dollars. Travels in Nubia, 4to, p. 120. 



THE CAMEL. 201 

els are the most amiable of creatures. Their good- 
nature to other beasts, we are told, is remarkable. 
They will let the goats of the towns and villages 
share their meals, and almost take the provender 
from their mouths ; the ass of the driver takes 
equal liberties, and dogs lie down to sleep with them 
without interruption. But the Turks take a sorry- 
advantage of those periodical fits of rage which 
constitute the exception to the general character of 
this useful creature. At particular seasons of the 
year, camel-fights are common at Smyrna and at 
Aleppo. Such exhibitions are the disgrace of the 
vulgar (be they the high or the low vulgar) of all 
countries ; and the lion-fights of the savage Ro- 
mans, the bullfights of Spain, the bull and badger 
baitings and cockfights of England, and the camel- 
fights of Asia Minor, are equally indications of a 
barbarian spirit, which can only be eradicated by 
knowledge and true religion. Of these, however, 
the camel-fights appear the least objectionable. 
The camels of Smyrna are led out to a large plain, 
filled with eager crowds. They are muzzled to 
prevent their being seriously injured, for their bite 
is tremendous, always bringing the piece out. A 
couple being let loose, they run at each other with 
extreme fury. Mr. Macfarlane thus describes to 
us this curious scene : " One of the favourite holy- 
day amusements of the Turks of Asia Minor is 
furnished by the camel combats. An enclosure is 
made, and two camels, previously muzzled so that 
they cannot hurt each other much, are driven in, 
and incited to fight with each other. Their mode 
of combat is curious : they knock their heads to- 
gether (laterally), twist their long necks, wrestle 



202 



NATtrilAL HISTORY. 



with their fore legs, ahiiost like bipeds, and seem 
to direct their principal attention to the throwing 
down of the adversary. During this combat, the 
Turks, deeply interested, will back, some one camel 
and some the other ; and they will clap their hands 
and cry out the names of their respective favour- 
ites, just as our amateurs do with their dogs, or as 
the Spaniards, at their more splendid and more 
bloody bullfights, will echo the name of the hardy 
bull or the gallant matador. The pacha of Smyrna 
used frequently to regale the people with these 
spectacles in an enclosed square before his palace ; 
and I saw them besides, once, at a Turkish wed- 
ding at the village of Bournabah, near Smyrna, and 
another time, on some other festive occasion, at 




Camels Fightings 



THE CAMEL. 203 

Magnesia. I once, however, chanced to see a less 
innocent contest, which I have noticed in my vol- 
ume of travels. This was on the plain between 
Mount Sipylus and Tartalee and the town of Smyr- 
na. It was a fight in downright earnest. Two 
huge rivals broke away from the string, and set to 
in spite of their drivers. They bit each other fu- 
riously, and it was with great difficulty the devid- 
gis succeeded in separating these (at other times) 
affectionate and docile animals." The popular 
amusements which the camel affords in other parts 
of the East are of a less ferocious nature. At a 
particular season of the year, the Mohammedans in 
the neighbourhood of Mount Sinai have camel raceSj 
and this festival is a time of great rejoicing.* 

The training of the camels to bear burdens, in 
the countries of the East, has not been minutely 
described by any traveller. M. Brue, who, at the 
latter part of the seventeenth century, had the man- 
agement of the affairs of a French commercial 
company at Senegal, says, " Soon after a camel is 
born, the Moors tie his feet under his belly, and, 
having thrown a large cloth over his back, put 
heavy stones at each corner of the cloth, which 
rests on the ground. They in this manner accus- 
tom him to receive the heaviest load." Both an- 
cient and modern authors agree tolerably well in 
their accounts of the load which a camel can carry. 
Sandys, in his " Travels in the Holy Land," says, 
" Six hundred weight is his ordinary load, yet will 
he carry a thousand." The camel sometimes car- 
ries large panniers filled with heavy goods ; some- 
times bales are strapped on his back, fastened either 
■* Burckhardt's Syria, p, 490. 



i 



204 NATURAL HISTORY. 

with cordage made of the palm-tree or leathern 
thongs ; and sometimes two or more will bear a 
sort of litter, in which women and children ride 
with considerable ease. The animal is so docile 
and steady, so regular in his movements and pre- 
cise in his steps, and, withal, so capable of sustain- 
ing a very large and unwieldy burden, that his dri- 
ver seldom hesitates about the bulk, or the awk- 
wardness in any other way, of what he places on 
his back. Captain Lyon, among the Arabs of 
Northern Africa, observed many of the children 
carried in leather bags, which were ordinarily used 
to keep corn in ; and in one instance he saw a 
*xest of children on one side of a camel, and its 
young one in a bag hanging on the other. In the 
Great Desert, Riley, who was a captive to the 
Arabs, used to assist the women and children to 
place themselves in baskets, which were made of 
camel's skin, and fixed in such a manner, with a 
wooden rim around them, over which a skin was 
sewed, that three or four could sit in them with per- 
feet safety and ease, only taking care to preserve 
their balance. But the patience of the camel in 
bearing every sort of load, and his uncomplaining 
nature whei^ overburdened, sometimes lead to op- 
pression. He is occasionally too heavily weight- 
ed ; and though there prevails an opinion that he 
will not rise with too great a load, he often sinks 
under his burden and expires. 

Bishop Heber, in his journey to Cawnpoor, in 
the East Indies, says, " In the course of this even- 
ing my attention was attracted by the dreadful 
groans of one of our baggage-camels, at some little 
distance among the trees. I went to the spot, and 



THE CAMEL. 205 

found that two of the * sarbauns,' or camel-drivers, 
had bound its legs in a kneeling posture, so that it 
could not rise or stir, and were now busy in burn- 
ing it with hot irons in all the fleshy, muscular, 
and cartilaginous parts of its body. They had 
burned six deep notches immediately under the eye, 
its haunches, and head, and were now applying 
the torturing instrument to its forehead and nos- 
trils. I asked what they were doing, and they an- 
swered that it had a fever and wind, and would die 
if they did not treat it in this manner." The ani- 
mal did die in a few hours. This was not intend- 
ed as cruelty, for the Indians, doubtless, firmly be- 
lieved in the efficacy of their torture. Among 
many rude nations, particularly those of Africa, 
the excitement produced by burning muscular and 
fleshy parts of the body is the general remedy for 
every disease of the human frame ; and as the peo- 
ple sometimes get well in spite of the remedy, the 
credit of the art is never impeached by the suffer- 
ings of its victims. Quackery is everywhere the 
same, endeavouring to make particular remedies of 
universal application ; and, therefore, necessarily 
committing an infinity of mistakes of the most seri- 
ous consequence. 

Avarice and ill temper will occasionally make 
the Arabs and Turks maltreat their camels ; though 
it is due to them to state that these instances are 
rare. The animal is usually treated with the care 
and kindness which his usefulness and his goodness 
demand. Mr. Macfarlane says, "I have been 
told that the Arabs will kiss their camels in grati- 
tude and afll'Ction after a journey across the des- 
erts. I never saw the Turks, either of Asia Minor 
S 



206 NATXTRAL HISTORY. 

or Roumelia, carry their kindness so far as this ^ 
but I have frequently seen them pat their camels 
when the day's work was done, and talk to them 
on their journey, as if to cheer them. The camels 
appeared to me quite as sensible to favour and gen- 
, tie treatment as a good. bred horse is. I have seen 
them curve and twist their long lithe necks as their 
driver approached, and often put down their tran- 
quil heads towards his shoulder." 

Again he says, " Near Smyrna, and at Magne^ 
sia and Sardes, I have occasionally seen a camel 
(a special favourite) follow his master like a pet 
dog, and go down on his knees before him as if 
inviting him to mount. I never saw a Turk ill use 
the useful, gentle, amiable quadruped. But I have 
frequently seen him give it a portion of his own 
dinner, when, in unfavourable places, it had nothing 
but chopped straw to eat. I have sometimes seen 
the devidjis, on a hot day or in passing a dry dis- 
trict, spirt a little water in the camels' nostrils ; 
they pretend it refreshes them." 

The Asiatics and Africans distinguish as drome^ 
daries those camels which are used for ridings 
There is no essential difference in the species, but 
only in the breed. The camel of the heavy cara- 
van, the baggage camel, may be compared to the 
dray-horse ; the dromedary to the hunter, and, in 
some instances, to the race-horse. It is to be re- 
gretted that naturalists have called the camel with 
one hump the dromedary, for this appellation pro- 
duces a confusion in reading those travels which, 
very properly, use the name dromedary as applied 
by the natives to a swift or riding camel. Burck- 
hardt, before his expedition into Nubia, bought two 



THE CAMEL. 207 

dromedaries, one of which he rode ten hours a day 
for thirty-five days. The speed of some of these 
animals is very great, compared with the slow 
march of the caravan. Messengers on dromeda- 
ries, according to Burckhardt, have gone from Da- 
rou to Berber in eight days, while he was twenty- 
two days with the caravan on the same journey. 

The first experiment which a European makes 
in bestriding a dromedary is generally a service of 
some little danger, from the peculiarity of the ani- 
mal's movement in rising. Denon has described 
this with his usual vivacity. During the French 
invasion of Egypt, a part of Dessaix's division, to 
which the scientific traveller was attached, was 
sent with camels to a distant post across the des- 
ert. " The houte-selle (the mounting at a signal) 
was very amusing. The camel, slow as he gen- 
erally is in his actions, lifts up his hind legs very 
briskly at the instant his rider is in the saddle ; the 
man is thus thrown forward : a similar movement 
of the fore legs throws him backward. Each mo- 
tion is repeated ; and it is not till the fo^urth move- 
ment, when the camel is fairly on his feet, that the 
rider can recover his balance. None of us could 
resist the first impulse ; and thus nobody could 
laugh at his companions."* Mr. Macfarlane tells 
us in his letter, that upon his first camel adven- 
ture he was so unprepared for the probable effect 
of the creature's rising behind, that he was thrown 
over his head, to the infinite amusement of the 
Turks, who were laughing at his inexperience. 
His description of this experiment is as lively as 
that of Denon : " I was acquainted with this pecu- 
* Denon, Voyage, torn, ii., p. 221, Paris, 1802. 



208 NATURAL HISTORY. 

liarity of animal movement in a striking manner, 
the first time I mounted a camel out of curiosity. 
I ought to have known better, and, indeed, did 
know better ; but, when he was about to rise, from 
old habits associated with the horse, I expected he 
would throw out his fore legs, and I threw myself 
forward accordingly, when up sprung his hind legs, 
and clean I went over his ears, to the great amuse- 
ment of the devidjis,'' 

Riley tells a somewhat similar story of the eifect 
of the rough movement of a large camel : " They 
placed me on the largest camel I had yet seen, 
which was nine or ten feet in height. The camels 
were now all kneeling or lying down, and mine 
among the rest. I thought I had taken a good 
hold, to steady myself while he was rising ; yet his 
motion was so heavy, and my strength so far ex- 
hausted, that I could not possibly hold on, and tum- 
bled off over his tail, turning entirely over^ I 
came down upon my feet, which prevented my re- 
ceiving any material injury, though the shock to 
my frame was very severe. The owner of the 
camel helped me up, and asked me if I was injured : 
I told him no. * God be praised!' said he, 'for 
turning you over ; had you fallen upon your head, 
these stones must have dashed out your brains. 
But the camel,' added he, ' is a sacred animal, and 
Heaven protects those who ride on him ! Had you 
fallen from an ass, though he is only two cubits 
and a half high, it would have killed you ; for the 
ass is not so noble a creature as the camel and the 
horse.' I afterward found this to be the prevaihng 
opinion among all classes of the Moors and the 
Arabs. When they put me on again, two of the 



THE CAMEL. 209 

men steadied me by the legs until the camel was 
fairly up, and then told me to be careful, and to 
hold on fast ; they also took great care to assist 
my companions in the same way."* 

Every preparation for a long journey being com- 
pleted — the dromedaries aad horses having their 
riders on their backs, and the'camels having receiv- 
ed their bales of goods and their water-skins — the 
caravan sets forward on its march. In Asia, an 
ass, bearing a tinkling bell, usually walks at the 
head, and the camels follow, one by one. Mr. Mac- 
farlane thus describes this arrangement, as well as 
their measured pace : " The caravans, or strings 
of camels, are always headed by a little ass, on 
which the driver sometimes rides. The ass has a 
tinkling bell round his neck ; and each camel is 
commonly furnished with a large, rude bell, that pro- 
duces, however, a soft and pastoral sound, suspend- 
ed, not to the neck, but to the front of the pack or 
saddle. As I have observed of the mules of Spain 
and Italy, they will all come to a dead stop if these 
bells be removed by accident or design ; and like 
the mules also, they always go best in a long single 
line, one after the other. We tried the experiment 
of the bell at Pergamos. Two stately camels, the 
foremost furnished with the bell, were trudging 
along the road with measured steps : we detached 
the bell with a long stick ; they halted as the sounds 
ceased, nor could we urge them forward until their 
ears were cheered with the wonted music. I have 
used the word measured, not as matter of poetry, 
but of fact. Their step is so measured and like 
clockwork, that on a plain you know almost to a 
* Riley's Shipwreck and Captivity, p. 289, 4to. 

S2 



210 NATUKAL HISTORY. 

yard the distance they will go in a given time. In 
the flat valleys of the Hermus and Caicus, I have 
made calculations with a watch in my hand, and 
have found, hour after hour, an unvarying result, 
the end of thejr journey being just at the same pace 
as the beginning : their pace is three miles an 
hour." He adds, " I may remark as curious, that 
the devidjis always preserve the same order of dis- 
tribution, or, as we might say, in military language, 
* dress the line,' in the same manner. Tiius one 
camel always goes first, another second, another 
third, and so on ; and if this order is interfered 
with, the beasts will become disorderly, and will 
not march. Each gets attached to a particular 
camel of the caravan, prefers seeing his tail be- 
fore him to that of any other, and will not go if 
you displace his friend." " We met caravans of 
camels," says Dr. Clarke, speaking of Cyprus, 
" marching according to the order always observed 
in the East ; that is to say, in a line, one after the 
other ; the whole caravan being preceded by an ass, 
with a bell about his neck."* Burckhardt gives the 
reason for the camels thus travelling in a single file : 
" The Souakin caravans, Hke those of the Hedjaz, 
are accustomed to travel in one long file ; the 
Egyptians, on the contrary, march with a wide ex- 
tended front ; but the former method is preferable, 
because, if any of the loads get out of order, they 
can be adjusted by leading the camel out of the 
line before those behind have come up ; in the lat- 
ter case, the whole caravan must stop when any 
accident happens to a single camel. The caravans 
from Bagdad to Aleppo and Damascus, consisting 
* Travels, vol. iv., p. 74, 8va. 



THE CAMEL« 211 

gometimes of two thousand camels, marching 
abreast of each other^ extend over a space of more 
than a mile." The individual camels, which march 
in line, invariably follow the steps of the one which 
precedes them ; and thus they are often led wrong 
if the drivers are negligent. They are sometimes 
tied, the one to the tail of the other, like strings of 
horses in England. Burckhardt, in his journey 
from Mecca to Medina,* says, " the Arab riding 
foremost was to lead the troop ; but he frequently 
fell asleep, as well as his companions behind, and 
his camel then took his own course, and often led 
the whole caravan astray." In the deserts, it re- 
quires especial vigilance and extraordinary local 
knowledge in the drivers to keep the right direc- 
tion. The compass is sometimes used ; but gen- 
erally, the cameUdrivers ascertain their course by 
some marks known only to themselves ; some sand- 
bank, or prickly shrubs, which only their experien- 
ced eye can distinguish from similar objects. " Ev- 
ery spot in the plains of Arabia is known by a par- 
ticular name ; and it requires the eyes and experi- 
ence of a Bedouin to distinguish one small district 
from another. For this purpose, the different spe- 
cies of shrubs and pasturage produced in them by 
the rains are of great assistance ; and whenever 
they wish to mention a certain spot to their com- 
panions, which happens to have no name, they al- 
ways designate it by the herbs that grow there. "f 
The camels of the caravan are wholly dependant 
upon those which precede them for the regularity 
of their pace or for their baitings ; and they there- 
fore are completely under the direction of the lead- 
* Travels in Arabia, 18291 t Burckhardt's Arabia, 



212 NATURAL HISTORY. 

er, whether the man or the beast assume that office. 

Even a rider can never stop his dromedary while 
its companions are moving on ; and thus it is a point 
of excellence in a traveller, with which the Arabs 
are highly pleased, to jump off and remount with- 
out stopping his beast.* The leading camel, how- 
ever, requires to be excited by its rider ; and, if it 
is not urged on by hearing the human voice, it 
gradually slackens its pace, and at last stands still 
to rest. If the leading camel once stops, all the 
rest do the same. Burckhardt, in his journey 
through Arabia, often walked ahead of the cara- 
van : he sometimes had to wait a long time for its 
coming up, and having retraced his steps, would 
find the camels standing still, and every soul upon 
them fast asleep. It is indifferent to these poor 
creatures where they stop ; for they are regardless 
of shade, and will remain quietly exposed to the 
hottest beams of the sun.f As long as the voice of 
the driver is heard, the camel does not heed what 
situation he is in. Captain Lyon saw a blind cameU 
driver, who held by the animal's tail, and was in the 
habit, with this assistance, of going constantly over 
an uneven and dangerously steep track. Whatever 
be the nature of the road they toil over, they plod 
steadily on. Burckhardt says, " it is an erroneous 
opinion that the camel delights in sandy ground ; 
it is true that he crosses with less difficulty than 
any other animal ; but, wherever the sands are deep, 
the weight of himself and his load makes his feet 
sink into the sand at every step, and he groans ancj 
often sinks under his burden. It is the hard, grav, 
elly ground of the desert which is most agreeable 
* Pijrckhardt's Syri^. j Clarke, iv,, 74. 



THE CAMEL. 213 

to this animal." Major Denham says, that in the 
stony desert " the sharp points bruise their feet, and 
they totter and fall under their heavy loads." This 
is an apparent and not a real contradiction between 
these two excellent authorities* The foot of the 
camel is adapted to tread upon a smooth surface, 
whether that surface be hard or soft. This foot is 
divided into two toes, without being separated. It 
is partly like the hoof of a horse, and partly cloven ; 
for a horny sole spreads from the heel forward, 
under the foot, uniting the middle part, and leaving 
the toes free. This horny sole is part of an elastic 
substance, which, being bedded in two cavities of 
the foot, yields to the pressure of the soil ; while 
the toes spread upon touching the ground, in the 
same way that the reindeer's foot extends, to pre- 
mnt a large surface to the snow.* We thus see 





Inside ofaCameVs Foot. — A is the cushion upon which the animal 
treadsj shown as lifted out of its beds. 

that the camel, having a very large, spreading, and 
elastic foot, moves with ease over any smooth sur- 
face, and does not sink into the sands with his heavy 

♦ See Preliminary Discourse. 



214 NATURAL HISTORY. 

lading and his own large body, in the same way 
that he would if his foot were small and hoofed, as 
that of the horse. From the opinion of our obli- 
ging correspondent, Mr. Macfarlane, we should be 
led to conclude that loose stones are not such an 
annoyance to the camel as might at first be suppo- 
sed. He says, ^' The foot, certainly formed by na- 
ture to tread a loose sandy soil, does not, however, 
appear to me to suffer from stony or hard roads. 
In Asia Minor there are mountains in every direc- 
tion ; the paths across them are hard, rough, and 
loose, as rocks and broken stones can make them ; 
yet I have often seen camels treading them without 
any appearance of suffering ; and though I have met 
them in my travels, hundreds in a day, I do not re- 
member having ever seen a wounded hoof." The 
surface which the camel chiefly dislikes is mud ; 
for in that he slips about : and thus he is, with the 
greatest difficulty, prevailed upon to cross a loose, 
muddy track, however narrow, though he will wade 
through a river without much entreaty, Mr. Mac- 
farlane assures us, that he has seen the devidjis 
spread the coverings of their tents, and even their 
own garments, over the obnoxious ground, that the 
camels might welk without fear. 

The camel will ascend and descend hills if they 
are not too steep. In the desert they sometimes 
meet with sand -banks, from twenty to sixty feet 
high, and almost perpendicular, which must be 
crossed. The camel, in such situations, constantly 
blunders and falls with his heavy load ; and, in de- 
scending, the Arabs hang with all their weight on 
the animal's tail, to steady him.* Thus his dociU 
* Denham, p. 28, 



THE CAMEL. 215 

ity compensates, in some degree, for the difficulty 
which he occasionally finds in travelling ; and it 
must be remembered, that sharp rocks and steep 
hills are the exceptions to the general character of 
the countries over vi^hich he travels, and for which 
his conformation is so admirably adapted. Rivers 
also rarely occur^ and yet the camel will readily 
cross them. Norden, a celebrated Danish travel- 
ler in Egypt and Nubia, was struck with the mode 
in which loaded camels crossed the Nile. " A 
man swam before, holding in his mouth the bridle 
of the first camel ; the second camel was fastened 
to the tail of the first, and the third to the tail of 
the second. Another man, sitting on a truss of 
straw, brought up the rear, and took care that the 
second and third camels should follow in a row." 
Captain Lyon heard from natives of Africa, that 
camels are conducted across the Niger by men 
who hold them by their long upper lips, and keep 
their heads above water : the forepart of that ani- 
mal being the heaviest, another man sits behind 
the hump, in order to raise the fore and depress 
the hinder parts while crossing. Major Denham 
describes a passage of the Shary, an African river, 
which was effected with considerable risk : " The 
stream was extremely rapid, and our horses and 
camels were carried away from the sides of the 
canoe to which they were lashed : we lost a camel 
by this passage ; these animals have a great dis- 
like to water, and, after swimming a stream, are 
often seized with illness, and are carried off in a 
few hours." Burckhardt, describing the passage 
of a river in Nubia, says, " An inflated goatskin was 
tied to the neck of each camel, to aid it in swim- 



216 NATURAL HISTORY. 

ming ; but we had great difficulty in getting them 
' into the water, the Egyptian camel not being ac- 
customed to this mode of passing the river. My 
guide stripped, and laid hold of the tail of his camel 
with one hand, while he urged the beast forward 
with a stick which he carried in the other." Thus 
we see that, under different circumstances, and in 
various countries, different methods are employed 
to convey the camel across streams upon which 
there are no rafts or boats ; and that though the 
patient animal has an objection to the v/ater, his 
docility triumphs over his instinct, and he yields to 
the will of his driver, sometimes even at the peril 
of his life. 

The halts of the caravan for the night are ex. 
ceedingly curious and picturesque. We shall 
avail ourselves of Mr. Macfarlane's communica- 
cations, before we proceed to those of other ob- 
servers : 

" On their journeys, the devidjis always choose 
for halting- places spots that abound in bushes or 
brakes, where such are to be found ; the camels 
are left at liberty to browse, and their drivers 
smoke their pipes or go to sleep. There is no 
danger of the camels escaping or wandering to any 
distance ; they keep close to the spot where they 
are set at liberty, and can be rallied and formed 
in a line in a moment. I have more than once 
seen this done by the mere voice. When they 
rest for the night, they generally kneel down in a 
circle ; it is rarely considered necessary to tie one 
of their fore legs at the bend of the knee. They 
always repose on their knees ; and a curious thing 
in relation to their natural habits is, that I never 



THE CAMEL. 217 

saw one of them throw himself, even for a moment, 
on his side. During the night's rest, the devidjis 
generally sleep in the midst of the circle formed 
by the recumbent camels ; if it be a rainy winter 
night, they will pitch a little tent, but (I speak of 
Asia Minor) in this genial climate they nearly 
always repose like their quiet beasts, a la telle 
etoile. I once invaded a primitive dormitory of 
this sort in a curious manner. It was at Boudja, 
a village (a few miles from Smyrna) where many 
of the Franks have their country houses. I was 
hurrying home on a very dark night ; at the en- 
trance of the village and in the shadow of a gar. 
den wall, I stumbled over something which proved 
to be a young camel (they accompany their dams 
on their journeys almost as soon as they are born); 
and, going forward, I stumbled again over a sack, 
and fell headlong through an opening of the * do- 
mestic circle' into the midst of it, and upon the 
sleeping devidjis. I suppose they were surprised 
at the intrusion, but both men and beasts were very 
civil ; the latter, indeed, never moved, and seemed 
as passive as if I had been falling over roots of 
trees." 

Camels are formed by nature to endure great 
variations of temperature. The winds of the des- 
ert are sometimes exceedingly keen ; and, even in 
Asia Minor, the winter cold is occasionally very 
severe. We add one more quotation from Mr. 
Macfarlane's interesting letter : 

" The winter of 1827-8 was the coldest that had 

been known for many years in Asia Minor ; yet, 

on the coldest days, when I, though a native of the 

north, have been shivering and suffering, I have 

T 



218 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



often seen the camels, at nightfall, bivouacking 
near Smyrna, on the banks of the Meles (Homer's 
river — as insignificant as is, or was, Fleet- ditch in 
summer, but a broad, brawling stream in winter), 
there to pass the inclement night in the open air. 
Their own instinct teaches them to contract their 
circle and kneel close together, and their masters 
merely cover their loins with a material as primi- 
tive as their modes of life and encamping. It is a 
coarse, thick sort of cloth, always dyed red, made 
of camel's wool, mixed with sheep's wool and goat's 
hair." 




Halt of Camels— DEtion. 

The chief repose of a caravan is in the evening. 
Camels on their march never feed at their ease in 
the daytime ; and nature seems to require that 
they should have their principal meal, and a few 
hours' rest, from a little before sunset to several 
hours before sunrise. The principal halts in Syria 
and Arabia are, therefore, for two hours at noon, 
when every one endeavours to sleep, and from an 
hour or so before the sun goes down till the morn- 
ing twilight.* When the caravan is about to pro- 
* Burckhardt's Syria. 



THE CAMEL. 219 

ceed over a steril district, the drivers, several 
days before they start, give the camels three times 
the usual quantity of dhourra (millet), which they 
force down their throats, and the construction of 
the stomach enables the animal to ruminate upon 
this during a very long march.* The expense of 
maintaining these valuable creatures is remarkably 
little : a cake of barley, a few dates, a handful of 
beans, will suffice, in addition to the hard and 
prickly shrubs which they find in every district 
but the very wildest of the desert* They are par- 
ticularly fond of those vegetable productions which 
other animals would never touch, such as plants 
which are like spears and daggers in comparison 
with the needles of the thistle, and which often 
pierce the incautious traveller's boot. He might 
wish such thorns eradicated from the earth, if he 
did not observe the camel contentedly browsing 
upon them ; for he thus learns that Providence has 
made nothing in vain. The sant-tree is among 
these substances, and in this the camel especially 
delights. These hard shrubs probably contain 
large quantities of sahne matter. In the Great 
Desert, Riley saw the camels crop off the thorn- 
bushes as thick as a man's finger. Their teeth 
are particularly adapted for such a diet. Differ- 
ing from all other ruminating tribes, they have two 
strong cutting teeth in the upper jaw ; and of the 
six grinding teeth, one on each side, in the same 
jaw, has a crooked form : their canine teeth, of 
which they have two in each jaw, are very strong ; 
and in the lower jaw the two external cutting teeth 
have a pointed form, and the foremost of the grind- 
*• Burckhardt's Nubia. 



220 NATITKAL HISTORY. 

ers is also pointed and crooked. They are thus 
provided with a most formidable apparatus for cut- 
ting and tearing the hardest vegetable substance. 
But the camel is, at the same time, organized so 
as to graze upon the finest herbage, and browse 
upon the most delicate leaves ; for, his upper lip 
being divided, he is enabled to nip off the tender 
shoots, and turn them into his mouth with the 
greatest facility. Whether the sustenance, there- 
fore, which he finds be of the coarsest or the soft- 
est kind, he is equally prepared to be satisfied with, 
and to enjoy it. In the desert, from Aleppo to 
Bagdad, Mr. Parsons occasionally passed through 
little flowery vales, covered with the choicest clo- 
ver, where the camels grazed; and in crossing 
some inconsiderable hills, which, though stony, 
were not bare of grass, besides producing rose- 
mary, thyme, camphor, marjoram, origanum, and 
southernwood, the camels seemed delighted to 
snatch a mouthful from these fragrant shrubs by 
way of variety, though the horses would not touch 
them. The young and fresh leaves of the acacia- 
trees are peculiarly grateful to them ; and the Be- 
douins, spreading a straw mat under the tree, beat 
its boughs with long sticks, and sell these tender 
leaves for camel's food.* The Nubians were one 
year without any produce from their date-trees, 
because the Mamelukes, in a time of great scarcity, 
fed their camels upon palm-leaves. The camel is 
particularly fond of a plant, the silphium of anti- 
quity, which was valued as a sovereign remedy for 
all complaints of the human body, from the time of 
Herodotus to that of Pliny. This plant produces 
♦ Burckhardt's Arabia. 



THE CAMEL. 221 

very fatal effects upon all quadrupeds ; but tne 
camels greedily devour it, as did the sheep of old, 
according to the description of Arrian. The 
camel is therefore muzzled when he travels through 
the countries in which silphium abounds, the Cyre- 
naica ; and, lest the drivers should allow him to 
taste it, and he should thus be destroyed, an addi- 
tional sum is charged for the hire of the animal 
through those districts, as a compensation for this 
chance of injury.* The camel wilj, indeed, eat 
every vegetable substance ; and it is affirmed that, 
in cases of need, he will even distend his stomach 
with coals. The African caravans carry coals 
through the desert ; and Riley states, that in the 
absence of all other food, the camels received a 
supply of this singular food once a day. They are 
partly enabled to endure these extraordinary priva- 
tions by the absorption into their system of the fat 
of the hump.f 

The long estabhshment of commercial inter- 
course in Asia by means of caravans, and the ne- 
cessity of accommodating large bodies of Mo- 
hammedan pilgrims from all parts of the east to 
Mecca, have caused the erection, from time to time, 
of large reservoirs of water in almost every fre- 
quented road. In the vicinities of the towns, these 
reservoirs, which are called birkets, are usually 
supplied from aqueducts. At these convenient 
places the caravans always halt. The Bedouins 
and other wandering tribes sometimes seize upon 
these wells, and extort a tribute for the permission 

* See Beechey's Northern Coast of Africa, p. 410. 
t See Dictionnaire Classique d'Histoire Naturelle ; art. Cha' 
meaUf by M. A. Desmoulins. 

T 2 



222 NATTTRAL HISTORY, 




Camels Watering— BbhO'S. 

to draw water. As soon, however, as a caravaa 
arrives upon the desert, the supply of water be- 
comes a matter of chance. The accustomed fount- 
ains are often dried up ; and the tiavellers have 
to journey forward, in the hopes of discovering 
some other well at which they may refresh their 
camels and replenish their water-skins. 

In a journey with a caravan, it is essentially ne- 
cessary to carry a considerable quantity of water. 
Sometimes a portion of the camels bear nothing 
but water-skins ; but oftener every camel carries 
one skin in addition to his ordinary lading. " No 
idea can be formed by Europeans," says Burck- 
hardt, " of the quantity of water necessary for 
drinking, cooking, and washing, during a journey 
through these countries ; but more particularly to 
allay the thirst of the traveller, whose palate is 
continually parched by the effects of the fiery 
ground and air ; who has been confined, perhaps, 
for several days to a short allowance of water, and 



THE CAMEL. 223 

who lives upon food which, consisting of farina, 
ceous preparations and butter, is calculated to ex- 
cite thirst in the highest degree. It is a general 
custom in the caravans in these parts (Nubia), as 
well as in the Arabian deserts, never to drink ex- 
cept when the whole caravan halts for a few min- 
utes for that purpose To drink while 

others do not exposes a man to be considered ef- 
feminate, and to the opprobrious saying, that ' his 
mouth is tied to that of the water-skin/ . . . 
Travellers in these journeys drink a great quan- 
tity of water when it is plentiful ; I do not exagger* 
ate when I say that I have often drunk in the 
afternoon, at one draught, as much as would fill 
two common water-bottles. . . . The usual 
computation is, that a middle-sized skin or gerbe, 
holding about fifty or sixty pounds of water, will 
serve a man for three days."* Captain Lyon 
says, that when horses travel with a caravan in 
Africa, it is necessary to provide a camel for each 
horse, for the sole purpose of carrying water. It 
would appear from these passages (and such is the 
fact), that of the water which the camels carry, no 
part is allowed to themselves. The men and 
horses have the advantage of their patient drudge- 
ry ; and they are left, in almost every case, to the 
precarious supply which they may find at the fount- 
ains which are so thinly scattered over the des- 
erts. Upon the subject of the camel's power of 
abstinence from water, there have been many ex- 
aggerations, which Burckhardt ascribes to the cre- 
dulity of those travellers " who draw their infor- 
mation only from bragging Arabians or Moors.' 
* Burckhardt's Nubia, p. 428. 



224 NATUEAL HISTORY, 

This power, however, is extraordinary enough to 
excite our wonder and admiration, without any as- 
sistance from fanciful descriptions. The camel 
often travels three or four days without water, 
drinking fifty, sixty, or even a hundred pounds 
weight when he has an opportunity ; and the best 
camels for transport will sometimes endure a thirst 
of ten or twelve days, though many of them perish 
under this privation. When we see what the man 
and the horse require in those arid countries, such 
a power in the camel must appear one of the most 
remarkable provisions of nature. 

The camel's stomach, when considered with ref- 
erence to its anatomical construction — a knowl- 
edge of which is necessary to understand the ca- 
pacity of the animal to endure hunger and thirst, 
particularly the latter, and which, without such 
knowledge, would appear little short of miraculous 
— exhibits a mechanism so admirable, so curious, so 
perfect in all its parts, and, withal, so delicate, that 
we cannot hesitate at once to consider it as beauti- 
ful an evidence of Almighty wisdom as any of the 
mechanical contrivances of the human body, such 
as the hand or the eye, with which we are more 
familiar. 



THE CAMEL. 225 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE CAMEL — {Continued). 

The habits of mankind in the East have under- 
gone less change during many centuries than Eu- 
ropeans would at first sight think possible. Many 
of the descriptions of the sacred historians find 
an exact parallel in the narratives of modern trav- 
ellers. The agriculture and the commercial in- 
tercourse of the Oriental nations are as little 
changed as their food, their dress, and their man- 
ners; and their intellectual progress during the 
last two thousand years, if it has not been at a 
stand, has been so slow as to be hardly perceptible. 
This perpetuation of the habits of a remote anti- 
quity may be very much attributed to the geograph- 
ical features, the cUmate, soil, and natural pro- 
ductions of the countries. For instance, in a soil 
and temperature peculiarly adapted to the ripen- 
ing of fruit, the date would still flourish as it flour- 
ished in the time of the prophets ; and while the 
people could gather with little trouble this great 
article of sustenance, they would have little motive 
to cultivate grain, which much of their soil is un- 
fitted to produce. Thus the improvements of agri- 
culture, demanding and rewarding improvements 
in various other of the useful arts, have had no 
place among them. 

Their vast deserts, producing but few of the no- 



226 NATURAL HISTORY. 

cessaries, and none of the luxuries of life, rendered, 
in the earliest ages, an extensive commerce the 
necessary condition of pleasurable existence. And 
commerce was made easy by the camel, the native 
of these arid plains ; through whose means they 
have been traversed with comparative facility from 
the earliest times. But navigation by the " ship 
of the desert" did not require, and was not capa- 
ble of, that gradual improvement which has trans- 
formed the frail raft or rude canoe into a floating 
palace, 

" Arm*d with thunder, clad with wings," 

the crown and triumph of ages, of thought and la- 
bour, and the greatest conquest which the mind of 
man has achieved over the difficulties in which, 
for the development of his wonderful powers, it has 
pleased God to place him. 

Thus, while the improvements of European com- 
merce, itself the creature of yesterday, have at 
length succeeded in bringing the cotton of India to 
be manufactured in England into cloth, and have 
returned it to the Hindoos cheaper than these peo- 
pie could prepare it for themselves, with all their 
abundant supply of human labour at its lowest 
price, the caravans of Egypt and Arabia are still 
carrying on the traffic of the age of Solomon, with 
scarcely any change either in the articles of the 
commerce or the manner in which it is pursued. 
The caravans of Egypt bring to Cairo ostrich feath- 
ers, gum, gold-dust, and ivory, from Abyssinia and 
the countries beyond it ; while those of Arabia ex- 
change there the spices, coffee, perfumes, and mus- 
lin of Hindostan. By means of caravans, the pro- 



T^ CAMEL. 227 

ductions even of China are distributed, at the pres- 
ent day, through central Asia ; while, by the ex- 
tension of the camel over Northern Africa, the ar- 
ticles which are sold in the markets of Timbuctoo 
are exchanged for the equally valuable commodi- 
ties of Samarcand and Thibet. There are cara- 
vans trading between Cairo and the interior of Af- 
rica, and penetrating far beyond the limits of mod- 
ern European discovery, which are wholly employ- 
ed in the commerce of slaves, the most disgraceful 
traffic by which one portion of the human race has 
ever inflicted injury upon another. Burckhardt 
describes the treatment which the slaves of the Af- 
rican caravans experience as "rather kind than 
otherwise." He says, " they are seldom flogged, 
and are well fed." This is before they enter upon 
the desert; for, as confinement injures their health, 
when they remain in the towns through which they 
pass, and as the negroes look upon the houses as 
prisons, the traders allow them, in these inhabited 
places, a little liberty. But after the caravan 
reaches the open country, they are treated in a 
manner at which humanity shudders. " On the 
journey they are tied to a long pole, one end of 
which is fastened to a camel's saddle, and the other, 
which is forked, is passed on each side of the slave's 
neck, and tied behind with a strong cord, so as to 
prevent him from drawing out his head ; in addi- 
tion to this, his right hand is also fastened to the 
pole at a short distance from the head, thus leaving 
only his legs and left arm at liberty ; in this man- 
ner he marches the whole day behind the camel ; 
at night he is taken from the pole and put in irons."* 
* Burckhardt's Nubia, p. 335. 



228 NATURAL HISTORY. 

And yet this horrible mode of transport is not so 
bad as the abominations of a slsive-ship, in which 
hundreds of miserable wretches are crammed into a 
hold, till they die of utter exhaustion or disease, and 
avarice is deprived of its victims. The slave-tra- 
ders of the caravans are Mohammedans ; the Eu- 
ropean slave-merchants call themselves Christians. 
The infidel carries his victim to receive the com- 
paratively hght yoke of domestic service ; the 
Christian dooms his prey to the unutterable hor- 
rors of West Indian bondage. 

The annual pilgrimage to Mecca, enjoined by the 
Mohammedan religion, has materially contributed 
to keep up and extend the commercial intercourse 
of the people of Asia. In this point of view, the 
ceremony, though one of superstitious origin, and 
accompanied with many absurd rites, has greatly 
benefited those countries which are far distant 
from each other, and the inhabitants of which, 
without such excitement, would seldom have any 
communication. The pilgrimage to Mecca is an 
institution which unites all the Mohammedans, from 
Abyssinia to India, in a common bond of religious 
observance and commercial traffic ; and it has thus 
had an extraordinaiy influence upon the habits of 
that large body of mankind who are followers of 
the doctrines of the Koran. In the present day, 
the hadj or pilgrimage has gradually decreased in 
numbers ; a circumstance which is attributed both 
to a growing indifference of the Mohammedans to 
their religion, and an increase of expense attend- 
ing the journey. The camel sustains such an im- 
portant part in these extraordinary journeys, that 
we shall attempt to trace the course of a single 



THE CAMEL. 229 

caravan of pilgrims ; and as that of Cairo is one 
of the most important, having, as well as the Syr- 
ian, the distinction of a sacred camel, and as it 
has been described by ancient as well as modern 
writers, a rapid sketch of its march may be given. 
We may thus develop, in a picturesque way, some 
of the remarkable circumstances attending the prog- 
ress of a vast number of camels, laden with the 
merchandise of unexplored regions : some bearing 
" Barbaric pearl and gold," others carrying water- 
skins ; and all exposed to perish in the desert, at 
the command of avarice or of enthusiasm, patiently 
doing the bidding of those who make this perilous 
journey, " some to Mammon, some to Mohammed," 
as old Purchas expresses it. In the words of the 
same quaint writer, " let us desire the reader to 
have patience, and goe along, on this pilgrimage, 
with one of these caravans, thorow these Arabian 
deserts, to Mecca and Medina." 

The hadj caravan starts from Cairo twenty days 
after the great fast of the Ramadhan is ended. 
Purchas has given an elaborate description of its 
ancient splendours. " The caravan," he says, " is 
divided into three parts ; the foreward, the maine 
bataille, and the rereward. The foreward contain- 
eth about a third part of the people. Within a 
quarter of a mile foUoweth the maine bataille, with 
their ordnance, gunners, and archers ; the chief 
physician, with his ointments and medicines for the 
sick, and camels for them to ride on. Next goeth 
the fairest camel that may be found in the Turk's 
dominions, decked with cloth of gold and silk, and 
carrieth a httle chest, in form of the Israelitish ark, 
containing in it the Alcoran, all written with great 
U 



230 NATURAL HISTORY. 

letters of gold, bound between two tables of mass- 
ive gold. This chest is covered with silke during 
the voyage ; but, at their entering into Mecca and 
Medina, it is covered with cloth of gold adorned 
with jewels. This camel is compassed about with 
Arabian singers and musicians, singing alway, and 
playing upon instruments. After this follow fif- 
teene other most faire camels, every one carrying 
one of the above said vestures, being covered from 
top to toe with silke. Behind these goe the twentie 
camels which carry the captaine's money and pro- 
vision. After follov/eth the standard of the Great 
Signior, accompanied with musicians and souldiers ; 
and behind these, lesse than a mile, followeth the 
rereward, the greatest part pilgrimes : the mar- 
chants, for securitie, going before ; for in this voy- 
age it is needfull and usuall, that the captaines be- 
stow presents, garments, and turbans upon the 
chiefe Arabians, to give them free passage, receiv- 
ing sometimes, by pilferings, some damage notwith- 
standing." 

Mr. Parsons, who saw the pilgrim caravan set 
out from Cairo about forty years ago, has given a 
programme of the procession, drawn up with all 
the precision of a herald, and which occupies ten 
pages of his quarto work. The cavalcade was six 
hours in passing him. The most striking appear- 
ance to a European must have been the camels, in 
every variety of splendid trappings, laden with pro- 
visions, and clothes, and cookery apparatus, and 
water-skins, and tents, and artillery, and holy 
sheiks, and Mamelukes. There were camels 
*' with two brass field-pieces each ;" others "with 
bells and streamers ;" others ** with men beating 



THE CAMEL. 231 

kettle-drums ;" others " covered with purple vel- 
vet ;" others " with men walking by their sides, 
playing on flutes and flagelets ;" others "hand, 
somely ornamented about their necks, their bridles 
being studded with silver, intermixed with glass 
beads of all colours, and ostrich feathers on their 
foreheads ;" and, last of all, " the sacred camel, an 
extraordinary large camel, with a fine bridle stud- 
ded with jewels and gold, and led by two holy 
sheiks in green, a square house or chapel on his 
back." In addition to these camel -splefidours, 
there were horses with every variety of caparison ; 
Mamelukes, and pikemen, and janizaries, and agas, 
and the emir hadgy (commander of the pilgrim j 
age), in robes of satin ; to say nothing of number- 
less "buffoons playing many pranks." 

Differing from the usual practice of commercial 
caravans, the pilgrimage is performed chiefly by 
night. The caravan generally moves about four 
o'clock in the afternoon, and travels without stop- 
ping till an hour or two afler sunrise. A large 
supply of torches is carried from Cairo, to be lighted 
during the hours of darkness. The Bedouins, who 
convey provisions for the troops, travel by day only, 
and in advance of the caravan. The watering- 
places on the route are regularly estabhshed. Each 
is supplied with a large tank, and protected by 
soldiers, who reside in a castle by the well through- 
out the year. On parts of the route the wells are 
frequent and the water good ; but on others three 
days of the journey frequently intervene between 
one watering-place and another, and the fountain 
is often brackish. When the Cairo caravan is 
completely assembled, and the formalities which we 



232 NATURAL HISTORY. 

have just described are gone through, the great 
body of travellers begin to move, the stations of 
the different parties of hadjys, according to their 
provinces and towns, being appointed and rigidly 
observed throughout the march. This order is de- 
termined by the geographical proximity of the place 
from which each party comes. At Adjeroud, 
where the Egyptian caravan halts on the second 
day's march, it is supplied with water from Suez ; 
and here it reposes a day and a night, to prepare 
for a ftrced march of three days and two nights, 
through a region where there is no water, the desert 
of El Tyh, which nearly extends from the head of 
one gulf of the Red Sea to the other ; that is, from 
Suez to Akaba. The hadj route is circuitous. It 
is here that the privations both of men and quad- 
rupeds commence. The splendid trappings of the 
camels, their velvets and their bells, have lost their 
attraction ; but their power of endurance becomes 
the safety of the pilgrims : while the richly capar- 
isoned horse, impatient of thirst and more easily 
subdued by fatigue, is more frequently a burden to 
the caravan than an advantage. The route of the 
Egyptian caravan, after it passes the Akaba, lies 
by the shores of the Red Sea for nearly six hun- 
dred miles ; and, therefore, it cannot properly be 
said at any time after the first ten days' march to 
be upon the desert, as the Syrian caravan is for 
thirty days. But its difficulties are more numer- 
ous ; and it has to pass regions quite as arid and 
inhospitable. Every part of Arabia is covered 
with sandy plains ; and, when the mountain steeps 
are crossed, the long extended valleys rarely offer 
water. The Arabic language is rich in words ex. 



THE CAMEL. 233 

pressing every variety of desert, differing from 
each other by very slight shades of meaning : thus 
they have terms descriptive of a plain, a plain in 
the mountain, a plain covered with herbs, a naked 
sandy desert, a stony desert, a desert with little 
spots of pasturage, a desert without water.* Al- 
though the caravan route from Cairo to Mecca pre- 
sents, with the exception of the desert El Tyh, 
none of those enormous wastes, like the great 
southern desert of Arabia, " where the Arabs have 
only the sun and the stars to direct their way ;" 
nor is, like the Libyan desert, " a sea without wa- 
ters, an earth without solidity, disdaining to hold a 
footprint as a testimony of subjection,"'|' there are 
many tracts, as well as the desert from Suez to 
Akaba, in the forty days' journey, which offer to 
the pilgrim abundance of fatigue and suffering. If 
water fail, as it sometimes does, even at the wells 
at particularly dry seasons ; if the water-skins evap- 
orate more quickly then they ordinarily do, the 
camel's power of endurance is severely tried, for 
his wants are the last attended to. Happy are the 
pilgrims if the rain of the mountains have filled 
the banks of some little river. Even the much- 
enduring camels, at the sight of water after many 
days' abstinence, break the halters by which they 
are led, and, in rushing or stumbling down the banks, 
throw off their loads, and occasion infinite disor- 
der.:]: Mr. Buckingham has, however, described a 
scene, in which the patience of the camel is con- 
trasted in a remarkable way with the eagerness of 
the horse : 

* See Humboldt's Voyage, torn. vi. note to p. 67. 
t Purchas. X Biirchardt's Nubia, p. 368. 

U 2 



234 NATURAL HISTORY. 

" It was near midnight when we reached a marshy 
ground, in which a clear stream was flowing along, 
through beds of tall and thick rushes, but so hidden 
by these that the noise of its flow was heard long 
before the stream itself could be seen. From the 
length of the march and the exhausting heat of the 
atmosphere, even at night, the horses were exceed- 
ingly thirsty ; their impatient restlessness, evinced 
by their tramping, neighing, and eager impatience 
to rush all to one particular point, gave us, indeed, 
the first indications of our approach to water, which 
was perceptible to their stronger scent long before 
it was even heard by us. On reaching the brink 
of this stream, for which purpose we had been for- 
cibly turned aside, by the ungovernable fury of the 
animals, to the southward of our route, the banks 
were found to be so high above the surface of the 
water that the horses could not reach it to drink. 
Some, more impatient than the rest, plunged them- 
selves and their riders at once into the current ; and, 
after being led swimming to a less elevated part 
of the bank, over which they could mount, were 
extricated with considerable difficulty; while two 
of the horses of the caravan, who were more heavi- 
ly laden than the others, by carrying the baggage 
as well as the persons of their riders, were drown- 
ed. The stream was narrow but deep, and had a 
soft muddy bottom, in which another of the horses 
became so fastly stuck that he was suffocated in a 
few minutes. The camels marched patiently along 
the edge of the bank, as well as those persons of 
the caravan who were provided with skins and other 
vessels containing small supplies of water ; but the 
horses could not, by all the power of their riders, 



THE CAMEL, 235 

be kept from the stream any more than the crowd 
of thirsty pilgrims, who, many of them having no 
small vessels to dip up the water from the brook, 
followed the example of the impatient horses, and 

plunged at once into the current This 

scene, which, amid the obscurity of the night, the 
cries of the animals, the indistinct, and, perhaps, 
exaggerated apprehensions of danger, from a total, 
ly unexpected cause, had assumed an almost awful 
character, lasted for upward of an hour."* 

The extraordinary scent of the camel enables him 
to discover water at a great distance ; and thus, in 
the wildest regions of the desert, the caravan is 
often preserved from destruction by this instinct, 
in the neighbourhood of wells, such as are found in 
the hadj routes, the camels, after passing rocky 
districts, that fatigue them more than several days' 
march upon the plains, surfeit themselves with wa- 
ter. This renders them still weaker, and they often 
perish. Camels' carcasses are as frequently found 
in the accustomed roads as in the deserts ; and, when 
the pilgrimage leaves Mecca, the very air is cor- 
rupt with the bodies of camels that have died of ex- 
haustion after performing the journey.f On the 
road, when a camel falls, he is usually killed ac- 
cording to the Mohammedan fashion, which is to 
turn his head towards Mecca and cut his throat. 
On such occasions the Arabs wait in savage im- 
patience the signal of the owner, ready to plunge 
their knives into the poor animal and tear off a 
portion of the flesh. At seasons of great privation, 
the water which is found in the cells of the camel's 
stomach is eagerly swallowed by the Arabs. 

* Buckingham's Mnsopotamia, vol. ii., p. 8. 
t Burckhardt's Arabia. 



236 NATURAL HISTORY. 

The fourth, fifth, and sixth days' marches of the 
Cairo hadj, through the deserts of Tyh, are ex- 
ceedingly exhausting and dangerous. The weary 
pilgrims halt for a day and a night at the castle of 
Nakhel, in the middle of the desert, where they re- 
plenish their water-skins ; but they march again 
in the evening of the seventh day, and, finding no 
water in their route, halt not till the morning of the 
tenth, when they have reached the plain and castle 
of Akaba. This district presents fearful monu- 
ments of the sufferings of the caravan. " Past the 
Akaba," says Burckhardt, " near the head of the 
Red Sea, the bones of dead camels are the only 
guides of the pilgrim through the wastes of sand." 
It is, perhaps, rarely that the pilgrims perish with 
thirst on the road, unless some of them wander 
from the main body ; or the caravan, losing its way, 
overshoots the day's station. Where there are no 
landmarks but those which are formed by the traces 
of former devastation — by " the bones of dead cam- 
els" — such a circumstance is not difficult to hap- 
pen even to the most experienced guides. The wa- 
ter-skins are, in such cases, emptied, and horses and 
men perish in a state of miserable despair, while the 
wearied camels drop with exhaustion. Probably 
these afflictions happen more frequently to private 
caravans than to those of the pilgrimage. Burck- 
hardt relates an interesting story of such an event 
in the Nubian desert, which beautifully illustrates 
the surprising instinct of the camel. It was told 
to him by a man who had himself suffered all the 
pangs of death : 

" In the month of August, a small caravan pre- 
pared to set out from Berber to Daraou. They 



THE CAMEL. 237 

consisted of five merchants and about thirty slaves, 
with a proportionate number of camels. Afraid of 
the robber Naym, who at that time was in the habit 
of waylaying travellers about the well of Nedjeym, 
and who had constant intelligence of the departure 
of every caravan from Berber, they determined to 
take a more eastern road, by the well Owareyk. 
They had hired an Ababde guide, who conducted 
them in safety to that place, but who lost his way 
from thence northward, the route being very unfre- 
quented. After five days' march in the mountains 
their stock of water was exhausted, nor did they 
know where they were. They resolved, therefore, 
to direct their course towards the setting sun, ho- 
ping thus to reach the Nile. After two days' thirst, 
fifteen slaves and one of the merchants died ; an- 
other of them, an Ababde, who had ten camels with 
him, thinking that the camels might know better 
than their masters where water was to be found, 
desired his comrades to tie him fast upon the sad- 
dle of his strongest camel, that he might not fall 
down from weakness ; and thus he parted from 
them, permitting his camels to take their own way : 
but neither the man nor his camel were ever heard 
of afterward. On the eighth day after leaving 
Owareyk, the survivers came in sight of the mount- 
ains of Shigre, which they immediately recognised ; 
but their strength was quite exhausted, and neither 
men nor beasts were able to move any farther. 
Lying down under a rock, they sent two of their 
servants, with the two strongest remaining camels, 
in search of water. Before these two men could 
reach the mountain, one of them dropped off his 
camel, deprived of speech, and able only to move 



238 NATURAL HISTORY. 

his hands to his comrade as a signal that he desired 
to be left to his fate. The survivor then continued 
his route ; but such was the effect of thirst upon 
him that his eyes grew dim and he lost the road, 
though he had often travelled over it before, and 
had been perfectly acquainted with it. Having 
wandered about for a long time, he aUghted under 
the shade of a tree, and tied the camel to one of 
its branches ; the beast, however, smelt the water 
(as the Arabs express it), and, wearied as it was, 
broke its halter, and set off galloping furiously in 
the direction of the spring, which, as it afterward 
appeared, was at half an hour's distance. The 
man, well understanding the camel's action, endeav- 
oured to follow its footsteps, but could only move 
a few yards ; he fell exhausted on the ground, and 
was about to breathe his last, when Providence led 
that way, from a neighbouring encampment, a 
Bisharye Bedouin, who, by throwing water on the 
man's face, restored him to his senses. They then 
went hastily together to the water, filled the skins, 
and, returning to the caravan, had the good fortune 
to find the sufferers still alive. The Bisharye re- 
ceived a slave for his trouble. My informer, a na- 
tive of Yembo, in Arabia, was the man whose camel 
discovered the spring ; and he added the remark- 
able circumstance, that the youngest slave bore the 
thirst better than the rest, and that, while the 
grown-up boys all died, the children reached 
Egypt in safety." 

The phenomenon of the mirage excites in the 
pilgrim of the deserts those alternations of hope 
and disappointment which add to the miseries of 
his actual situation. He sees before him lakes of 



THE CAMEL. 239 

water, which are gone the instant he arrives at the 
spot where he fancied they offered their refresh- 
ment to his feverish lips. The Arabs are familiar 
with this remarkable appearance, and they are sel- 
dom deceived by it ; although, if the mirage and a 
real stream could be seen at the same time, it 
would be difficult to distinguish the reality from the 
delusion.* The guides of the European traveller 
often amuse themselves by calling to him that wa- 
ter is in sight, when they are upon the most thirsty 
spots of a sandy or gravelly plain. Burckhardt 
has described the mirage with his usual felicity if 
" During the whole day's march we were surround- 
ed on all sides by lakes of mirage, called by the 
Arabs, Serab. Its colour was of the purest azure, 
and so clear that the shadows of the mountains 
which bordered the horizon were reflected in it 
with the greatest precision, and the delusion of its 
being a sheet of water was thus rendered still more 
perfect. I had often seen the mirage in Syria and 
Egypt, but always found it of a whitish colour, rath- 
er resembling a morning mist, seldom lying steady 
on the plain, but in continual vibration ; but here 
it was very different, and had the most perfect re- 
semblance to water. The great dryness of the air 
and earth in this desert may be the cause of the dif- 
ference. The appearance of water approached 
also much nearer than in Syria and Egypt, being 
often not more than two hundred paces from us, 
whereas I had never seen it before at a distance of 
less than half a mile. There were at one time 
about a dozen of these false lakes around us, each 
separated from the other, and, for the most part, in 
* Lyon, p. 347. t Nubia, p. 193. 



240 NATURAL HISTORY. 

the low grounds." The mirage is caused by the 
extraordinary refraction which the rays of the sun 
undergo in passing through masses of air in con- 
tact with a surface greatly heated. These atmo- 
spheric delusions are not confined to the appear- 
ance of water in the desert. The traveller, faint- 
ing beneath a burning sun, sees a tree in the dis- 
tance sufficiently large for him to find a shade be- 
neath its boughs. He quickens his pace, hoping 
to enjoy half an hour of refreshing coolness before 
his camels shall have passed. The tree is really 
a miserable shrub, that does not afibrd shade enough 
to shelter one of his hands. This magnifying of 
objects is produced by the slight vapour which rises 
when the heat is greatest. When the sun gleams 
on the sandhills, they appear at an immense dis- 
tance ; the traveller hopes that his camels may be 
spared the pain of crossing these slippery ascents ; 
when, in a few minutes, he is close upon them, and 
sees a man or a camel within a stone's throw toil- 
ing to the top.* As the sun ascends towards the 
zenith, and the earth and the currents of air as- 
sume different temperatures, the phenomena of the 
mirage present numerous modifications. Hum- 
boldt states, that in the plains of South America, 
where the air is very dry, he often saw the images 
of troops of wild oxen suspended in the air long 
before the eye could see the oxen themselves ; and 
the small currents of air were of such a variable 
temperature, that the legs of some appeared to rest 
upon the ground, while others were elevated above 
it. In Arabia, Niebuhr observed the image of an 
animal reversed before he saw the direct image. 
♦ See Lyon, p. 347. 



THE CAMEL. 241 

Sometimes towers and large masses of apparent 
buildings are seen upon the horizon, which disap- 
pear at intervals, without the traveller being able to 
decide upon the true forms of the objects, which are 
probably little sandhills, beyond the ordinary range 
of vision.* All these phenomena are modifications 
of the mirage, though the name is generally ap- 
plied to the unreal lakes of the desert. The Per- 
sian and Arabian poets make frequent allusion to 
these magical effects of terrestrial refraction. 

Such delusive appearances must have a tendency 
to fill the mind of the inexperienced traveller with 
a vague and somewhat awful wonder. Upon a 
sandy surface, too, the stillness of the desert is par- 
ticularly impressive. Passing over such a soil, the 
camel's tread produces scarcely any sound. Capt. 
Lyon says, " I have sometimes walked at night 
from the kaffle (caravan), and have experienced 
a sensation I am unable to describe, as I felt the 
wind blow past me, and heard the sound which my 
figure caused me to make by arresting its prog- 
ress." It is at such moments that the European 
traveller may think of the solemn denunciation of 
the prophet against Babylon ; and may fancy for 
a while that he is the only tenant of the sandy 
wastes : " The sea is come up upon Babylon, she is 
covered with the multitude of the waves thereof: her 
cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, 
a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any 
son of man pass thereby. "f Of the tediousness of 
a journey through these arid regions there can be 
no doubt ; and Mr. Buckingham seems to have felt 

* Humboldt's Voyages, liv. vi., chap. xvii. 
t Jeremiah. 

X 



242 NATURAL HISTOEV. 

the full force of its monotony : " In walking my 
horse a gentle pace, if I mounted the last in the 
caravan, I could gain the head of it in two hours, 
though our line extended nearly two miles in length ; 
when, as was the practice of most of the other 
horsemen of the party, we dismounted on the grass, 
suffered our horses to feed there, and either lay 
down or smoked a pipe for nearly an hour, until 
the caravan had all passed us again. This was 
repeated at every similar interval ; so that, in an 
uninteresting part of the country, where there was 
no picturesque landscape to charm the sight, not a 
tree to relieve the monotonous outline of the hills, 
nor sufficient verdure to clothe their rocky sides ; 
where either we were lighted only by the stars, or 
scorched by the sun an hour after its rising, its 
tediousness may easily be conceived." And yet 
even the desert has its pleasures : when the cara- 
van reaches some wished-for fountain, and finds a 
patch of verdure or a few shrubs after many hours 
of privation. Major Denham has prettily described 
a scene of this nature : " The day had been oppres- 
sively hot ; my companions were sick and fatigued, 
and we dreaded the want of water. A fine dust, 
arising from a light clayey and sandy soil, had also 
increased our sufferings : the exclamations of the 
Arab who first discovered the wells were indeed 
music to our ears ; and, after satisfying my own 
thirst, with that of my weary animals, I laid me 
down by one of the distant wells, far from my com- 
panions ; and these moments of tranquillity, the 
freshness of the air, with the melody of the hun- 
dred songsters that were perched among the creep- 
ing plants, whose flowers threw an aromatic odour 



THE CAMEL. 243 

all around, were a relief scarcely to be described." 
The happiness of such a contrast must naturally 
be great ; and so many writers have described this 
pleasure, that the idea has passed from the poeti- 
cal into the popular language even of the West ; 
and thus the recollection of an interval of joy 
amid a life of suffering, 

" The greenest spot 
In memory's waste," 

is the Oasis in the desert. 

And yet to an imaginative mind, stored with 
knowledge and ardent in the pursuit of new ob- 
jects of research, even the dreariest wilds of the 
desert have their charm. Burckhardt, according 
to Captain Beechey, '^ has frequently been heard to 
declare that his most pleasant hours in travelling 
had been passed in the desert ;" and Captain Beech- 
ey, himself an adventurous traveller, has well ex- 
plained this. " If the desert have terrors peculiar 
to itself, it also has its peculiar pleasures. There 
is something imposing, we may say sublime, in the 
idea of unbounded space which it occasionally pre- 
sents ; and every trifling object which appears above 
its untenanted surface, assumes an interest which 
we should not, on other occasions, attribute to ob- 
jects of much greater importance. The little ro- 
mance which its stillness and solitude encourage, 
is, at the same time, grateful to the feelings ; and 
one may here dream delightfully of undisturbed 
tranquillity and independence, and of freedom from 
all the cares, the follies, and the vices of the world." 
A principal source of this calm of the mind, when 
surrounded by real hardships and cheerless soli- 
tudes, must spring from that feeling which is one of 



244 NATURAL HISTORY. 

the most elevating of all the various trains of hu- 
man thought, the consciousness of an earnest de- 
termination to struggle with difficulties. Whether 
the privations of the uncivilized or the crosses of 
the social life are to be overcome, to meet the evil, 
whatever it be, 

" Nor bate a jot 
Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer 
Right onward ;" 

this is in itself a triumph ; and the world can give 
nothing better than those moments when a man 
feels that he has looked dangers and annoyances in 
the face, and that he shall surmount them. 

The hot wind of the deserts has been described 
as producing the most fatal effects, as suffocating 
men and beasts in an instant. This is one of the 
exaggerations which attach to such remarkable 
phenomena, they being generally described by per- 
sons who have only heard of their results. Burck- 
hardt, who seldom relates anything but of his own 
knowledge, was very anxious to prove the truth of 
these relations ; and, according to the accounts 
which he had from the Arabs, as well as from his 
own experience, the evil, though a serious one, is 
not so tremendous as travellers in general have 
pretended. 

" I again inquired, as I had often done before, 
whether my companions had often experienced the 
semoum (which we translate by the * poisonous blast 
of the desert,' but which is nothing more than a 
violent southeast wind). They answered in the 
affirmative, but none had ever known an instance 
of its having proved fatal. Its worst effect is, that 
it dries up the water in the skins, and so far it en. 



il^ 



THE CAMEL, 245 



dangers the traveller's safety. In these southern 
countries, however, water-skins are made of very 
thick cow-leather, which are almost impenetrable 
to the semoum. In Arabia and Egypt, on the con- 
trary, the skins of sheep or goats are used for this 
purpose ; and I witnessed the effect of a semoum 
upon them, in going from Tor to Suez over land, 
in June, 1815, when in one morning a third of the 
contents of a full water-skin was evaporated. I 
have repeatedly been exposed to the hot wind in 
the Syrian and Arabian deserts, in Upper Egypt 
and Nubia. The hottest and most violent I ever 
experienced was at Suakin ; yet even there I felt 
no particular inconvenience from it, although ex- 
posed to all its fury in the open plain. For my 
own part, I am perfectly convinced that all the 
stories which travellers or the inhabitants of the 
towns of Egypt and Syria relate of the semoum of 
the desert, are greatly exaggerated, and I never 
could hear of a single well-authenticated instance of 
its having proved mortal either to man or beast. 
The fact is, that the Bedouins, when questioned on 
the subject, often frighten the townspeople with tales 
of men, and even of whole caravans, having per- 
ished by the effects of the wind ; when, upon closer 
inquiry, made by some person whom they find not 
ignorant of the desert, they will state the plain 
truth. I never observed that the semoum blows 
close to the ground, as commonly supposed, but 
always observed the whole atmosphere appear as 
if in a state of combustion : the dust and sand are 
carried high into the air, which assumes a reddish, 
or bluish, or yellowish tint, according to the nature 
and colour of the ground from which the dust 
X 2 



24:G NATURAL HISTORY. 

arises. The yellow, however, always more or less 
predominates. In looking through a glass of a 
light yellow colour, one may form a pretty correct 
idea of the appearance of the air, as I observed it 
during a stormy semoum at Esne, in Upper Egypt, 
in May, 1813. The semoum is not always accom- 
panied by whirlwinds ; in its less violent degree it 
will blow for hours with little force, although with 
oppressive heat ; when the whirlwind raises the 
dust, it then increases several degrees in heat. In 
the semoum at Esne, the thermometer mounted to 
121° in the shade ; but the air seldom remains long, 
er than a quarter of an hour in that state, or long- 
er than the whirlwind lasts. The most disagree- 
able effect of the semoum on man is, that it stops 
perspiration, dries up the palate, and produces great 
restlessness. I never saw any person lie down 
flat upon his face to escape its pernicious blast, as 
Bruce describes himself to have done in crossing 
this desert ; but, during the whirlwinds, the Arabs 
often hide their faces with their cloaks, and kneel 
down near their camels, to prevent the sand or dust 
from hurting their eyes. Camels are always much 
distressed, not by the heat, but by the dust blowing 
into their large, prominent eyes : they turn round 
and endeavour to screen themselves by holding 
down their heads ; but this I never saw them do 
except in case of a whirlwind, however intense the 
heat of the atmosphere might be. In June, 1813, 
going from Esne to Siout, a violent semoum over- 
took me upon the plain between Farshyout and 
Berdys ; I was quite alone, mounted upon a light- 
footed hedjin. When the whirlwind arose, neither 
house nor tree was in sight ; and while I was en- 



THE CAMI3L. 247 

deavouring to cover my face with my handkerchief, 
the beast was made unruly by the quantity of dust 
blown into its eyes and the terrible noise of the 
wind, and set off at a furious gallop ; I lost the 
reins, and received a heavy fall ; and, not being able 
to see ten yards before me, I remained wrapped up 
in my cloak on the spot where I fell, until the wind 
abated ; when, pursuing my dromedary, I found it 
at a great distance, quietly standing near a low 
shrub, the branches of which afforded some shelter 
to its eyes. 

" Bruce has mentioned the moving pillars of sand 
in this desert ; but, although none such occurred 
during my passage, I do not presume to question 
his veracity on this head. The Arabs told me that 
there are often whirlwinds of sand, and I have re- 
peatedly passed through districts of moving sands, 
which the slightest wind can raise ; I remember to 
have seen columns of sand moving about like wa- 
ter-spouts in the desert, on the banks of the Eu- 
phrates, and have seen at Jaka terrible effects from 
a sudden wind ; I therefore very easily credit their 
occasional appearance on the Nubian desert, al- 
though I doubt of their endangering the safety of 
travellers." 

In a subsequent part of his travels in Nubia, the 
same accurate observer, to whom we are under so 
many obligations in this account of the camel, has 
described the most tremendous hurricane of the 
desert which he ever witnessed: "A dark blue 
cloud first appeared, extending to about 25° above 
the horizon ; as it approached nearer and increased 
in height, it assumed an ash-gray colour, with a 
tinge of yellow, striking every person in the cara- 



248 NATURAL HISTORY. 

van who had not been accustomed to such phenom- 
ena, with amazement at its magnificent and terrific 
appearance. As the cloud approached still nearer, 
the yellow tinge became more general, while the 
horizon presented the brightest azure. At last it 
burst upon us in its rapid course, and involved us 
in darkness and confusion ; nothing could be dis- 
tinguished at the distance of five or six feet ; our 
eyes were filled with dust ; our temporary sheds 
were blown down at the very first gust, and many 
of the more firmly fixed tents followed ; the largest 
withstood for a time the force of the blast, but were 
at last obliged to yield, and the whole camp was 
levelled with the ground. In the mean time, the 
terrified camels arose, broke the cords by which 
they were fastened, and endeavoured to escape from 
the destruction which appeared to threaten them." 
Some writers state, that camels, at the very first 
blast of the semoum, bury their noses in the sand. 
Such are the dangers to which a caravan, trav- 
elling through the deserts of Asia and Africa,* is 
exposed ; and, however splendidly appointed may 
be the caravans of the hadj, they cannot escape 
these dangers, or materially diminish the privations 
of all those who pass over such dreary regions. 
It must be quite evident that, without the camel, 
the journey would be totally impossible. With this 
useful creature, whose value to the pilgrim is be- 
yond all price, its difficulties are alleviated and its 
dangers averted ; and if men can in any degree 

* Humboldt has calculated, from maps constructed upon a 
large scale, that the great desert of Africa, without including 
Bornou and Darfour, extends over 194,000 square leagues. The 
immensity of this waste will be apparent when it is considered 
that the Mediterranean Sea only occupies 79,800 square leagues. 



THE CAMEL. 249 

emulate the eamel's endurance and abstinence, as 
the Arabs do by constant habit, there may be hun- 
ger, and thirst, and fatigue, but exhaustion and 
death will be battled with, and the weak, the faint 
of heart, and the luxurious only will fall in the 
struggle. 

The Egyptian pilgrims remain a day and night 
at the castle of Akaba ; their course then lies by 
the eastern shore of the Red Sea. The road by 
which they proceed is at first rocky and barren ; 
but upon the third day after the caravan leaves 
Akaba, the travellers find wells of sweet water and 
date-trees in abundance ; and this agreeable con- 
trast to the desert through which they have passed 
continues for several days. The roads are, indeed, 
infested by robbers ; and at every halting-place 
there are plunderers ready to rush upon the strag. 
gler, and often to destroy him. About the twenti- 
eth day of the journey the caravan again passes 
through a barren valley without water ; and the 
wells are so distant, that the march is continued 
for two days and a night without a halt. The town 
of Beder is at length reached on the twenty-ninth 
day, where the travellers find rest and refreshment. 
The route is little varied, either by difficulties or 
pleasures, for several days onward, when the road 
crosses a steep sandhill, which Burckhardt saw 
covered with carcasses of camels, the relics of the 
late hadj caravans. The neighbouring plains are 
spotted with tamarisk-trces, which delight in sand, 
and in the driest season, when all vegetation around 
them is withered, never lose their verdure. Be. 
yond Kholeys, about three days' journey from 
Mecca, is a narrow ascending path between rocks, 



250 NATURAL HISTORY. 

affording room for the passage only of one camel. 
The torrents which run down this defile in winter 
entirely destroy the road ; and the poor camels stum- 
ble with their loads over large sharp blocks of stone, 
which wound their feet. On the day before the 
pilgrims reach Mecca, they repose in a valley cov- 
ered with Saracen buildings, Arab huts, and date- 
groves ; and remarkable for its numerous henna- 
trees, w4th the odoriferous flowers of which, reduced 
to powder, the people of the East dye the palms of 
the hands, the soles of the feet, or the nails of both ; 
the pilgrims always carry henna home as a present 
to their female relations. Near Mecca are two 
great reservoirs of water, one for the Egyptian, the 
other for the Syrian caravan ; they are about six 
hundred years old, and were constructed by the 
munificence of the Turkish sultans. That appro- 
priated to the Egyptian pilgrims is about one hun- 
dred and sixty feet square, and from thirty to thir- 
ty-five feet in depth ; it is supplied by an aqueduct. 
After thirty-seven days journey from the gardens 
of Cairo, the hadj enters Mecca with great solem- 
nity. It would be beside the purpose of this work 
to describe the ceremonies in the birthplace of Mo- 
hammed, which may more properly find a place in 
an account of the manners of the East. The city 
presents an extraordinary spectacle of business and 
pleasure, of devotion and licentiousness. The rich 
hadjys spend their wealth luxuriously ; the mendl 
cants display their rags and proclaim their miseriea 
in the courts of the great mosque ; and very fe\* 
exhibit any real devotion, such as was contem 
plated in the original institution of the pilgrim- 
age. One remarkable scene, however, may bo 



THE CAMEL. ' 251 

given from Burckhardt (who was present during 
this great solemnity of the East), the sermon at the 
mountain of Arafat, some distance from Mecca ; 
here the camel occupies a prominent station : 

" The time of Aszer (or about three o'clock P.M.) 
approached, when that ceremony of the hadj takes 
place for which the whole assembly had come hith- 
er. The pilgrims now pressed forward towards 
the mountain of Arafat, and covered its sides from 
top to bottom. At the precise time of Aszer the 
preacher took his stand upon the platform on the 
mountain, and began to address the multitude. 
This sermon, which lasts till sunset, constitutes 
the holy ceremony of the hadj, called Khotbetel 
Wakfe ; and no pilgrim, although he may have vis- 
ited all the holy places of Mecca, is entitled to the 
name of hadj, unless he has been present on this 
occasion. As Aszer approached, therefore, all the 
tents were struck ; everything was packed up ; the 
caravans began to load, and the pilgrims belonging 
to them mounted their camels, and crowded round 
the mountain to be within sight of the preacher, 
which is sufficient, as the greater part of the mul- 
titude is necessarily too distant to hear him. The 
two pachas, with their whole cavalry drawn up in 
two squadrons behind them, took their post in the 
rear of the deep lines of camels of the hadjys, to 
which those of the people of the hcdjaz were also 
joined ; and here they waited, in solemn and respect- 
ful silence, the conclusion of the sermon. Farther 
removed from the preacher was the Sherif Yahya, 
with his small body of soldiers, distinguished by 
several green standards carried before him. The 
two Mahmals, or holy camels, which carry on their 



252 NATURAL HISTORY. 

back the high structure that serves as the banner 
of their respective caravans, made way with diffi- 
culty through the ranks of camels that encircled 
the southern and eastern sides of the hill, opposite 
to the preacher, and took their station, surrounded 
by their guards, directly under the platform in front 
of him. The preacher, or khatyb, who is usually 
the kadhy of Mecca, was mounted on a finely ca- 
parisoned camel, which had been led up the steps ; 
it being traditionally said, that Mohammed was al- 
ways seated when he here addressed his followers, 
a practice in which he was imitated by all the ca- 
lifs who came to the hadj, and who from hence ad- 
dressed their subjects in person. The Turkish 
gentleman of Constantinople, however, unused to 
camel-riding, could not keep his seat so well as the 
hardy Bedouin prophet ; and the camel becoming 
unruly, he was soon obliged to alight from it. He 
read his sermon from a book in Arabic which he 
held in his hands. At intervals of every four or 
five minutes he paused, and stretched forth his hands 
to implore blessings from above ; while the assem- 
bled multitudes around and before him waved the 
skirts of their ihrams (cloaks) over their heads, and 
rent the air with shouts of ' Lebeyk, Allahuma Le- 
beyk' (i. e., * Here we are at thy commands, oh 
God !'). During the wavings of the ihrams, the 
side of the mountain, thickly-crowded as it was by 
the people in their white garments, had the appear- 
ance of a cataract of water ; while the green um- 
brellas, with which several thousand hadjys, sitting 
on their camels below, were provided, bore some 
resemblance to a verdant plain." 



THE CAMEL. 253 

We have thus gone through the history of the 
cameL The subject is full of interest ; and we 
could not, therefore, hastily dismiss an animal 
which forms such an important part in the econo- 
my of the human race. The horse and the ele- 
phant are perhaps the only other creatures that 
afford equally valuable services to man, in labour- 
ing for his benefit, and are equally connected with 
his history. They each are intimately associated 
with the progress of society in every region of the 
world ; and they each offer the most remarkable 
adaptation of powers to the peculiar duties which 
they have to perform. Their labour may continue 
to be, as it has been, superseded by the inventions 
of machinery, and by those modes of communica- 
tion which are independent of their power either 
wholly or in part ; but the advance of civilization 
and the triumphs of art could never have been thus 
far accomplished without the previous domestica- 
tion of these three valuable servants ; and it is doubt- 
ful whether, at any more advanced stage of human 
art, their services can be greatly dispensed with. 

The scientific character of the species is as fol- 
lows : 
Teeth — Incisors, f . Canine, |Zy. Molar, |r|. 
Total, 34. 
Two pointed teeth implanted in the incisive bone. 
The scaphoid and cuboid of the tarsus (bones of 

the instep) separate. 
The two toes united underneath, nearly to the ex- 
tremities, by a common sole. 
The upper lip cleft and swelled. 
No horns. 

Y 



254 NATURAL HISTORY. 

The camels are inhabitants of the Old World, and 
are almost exclusively found in Asia and Africa, 

The female goes with young eleven or twelve 
months, and produces only one at a birth. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE LLAMA. 

The llamas form a secondary group of camels, 
offering to the eye of the naturalist very small ana. 
tomical differences of construction from that of the 
camel, properly so called. The foot. of the llama 
is not, like that of the camel, covered with an elas- 
tic sole which joins the two toes. From the ab- 
sence of this entire sole, the species of South Amer- 
ica is enabled to climb the precipices of the Andes, 
which are its native region, the toes having strong 
nails, each of which has a thick cushion or pad 
below. The llama also wants the second canine 
tooth in the lower jaw ; but this difference is not 
by some considered such as to require a separa- 
tion of the genus : for deer of various species ha^'3 
the same deviation from the general type. Again, 
the absence of the hump in the llama species is not 
an anatomical difference which constitutes a char- 
acter ; for as the skeleton of the Bactrian camel 
with two humps does not differ from that of the 
Arabian with one, so does the arrangement of the 
bones of the llama agree precisely with the con- 
formation of the camel. 

In the gardens of the Zoological Society are two 



THE LLAMA. 



255 



individuals of the llama family, which are described 
in the guide to the gardens as varieties of the same 
species. The one which principally attracts atten- 
tion, by the lightness of its make, the brilliancy of 
its eye, and the beautiful tawny-brown colour of 




The Llama. 



Auchenia Glama, Illiger and F. CuviER.- 
Lama, BuFFON and Covier. 



its coat, stands about four feet from the sole of the 
foot to the withers. He was presented to the so- 
ciety by Robert Barclay, Esq. This llama often 
exhibits the remarkable peculiarity of its species, 
that of spitting when it is offended ; and as it easi- 
ly takes offence, even at a look, the visiters of the 
gardens have abundant opportunities of disproving 
what has so often been asserted, that its saliva has 
something venomous in its quality. We have re- 



256 NATURAL HISTORY. 

ceived a plentiful shower of it in the face, without 
feeling any of those blisters which travellers used 
to describe w^th great minuteness. This animal, 
too, is somewhat inclined to strike with his fore 
feet ; and he often raises himself upon the iron rail- 
ing of his enclosure with an appearance of a great 
desire to do mischief. The power of his teeth is 
considerable ; for, upon some sudden fit of rage, in 
the autumn of last year, he tore a large piece out 
of a strong door at one effort. 

The llamas of South America furnish a beauti- 
ful example of the determination of the locality of 
a particular group of animals, according to the ele- 
vation of the surface where they find their food. 
This selection is probably determined by tempera- 
ture. The llamas are stationed upon different 
stages of the Cordilleras ; and are found or disap- 
pear throughout that enormous chain of mount- 
ains, as the summits are elevated or depressed. 
Thus they range considerably below the line of 
perpetual snow, from Chili to new Granada, with- 
out reaching the Isthmus of Panama. The species 
is not found in Mexico ; and this remarkable cir- 
cumstance is to be ascribed to the fact that, at the 
isthmus, the Cordillera has a less elevation than is 
suited to their natures and wants. In the same 
way some of the Alpine animals of Europe (such 
as the bouquetin), which never descend into the 
plains, are found upon mountains at long intervals, 
although the line of their summits is interrupted. 
This locality is determined by elevation. The same 
fact is constantly observed with regard to plants. 

The llama was found by the Spaniards at the 
period of their conquest of South America. It was 



THE LLAMA. 257 

the only beast of burden which the natives possess. 
ed. Its flesh was eaten by the Indians, and its 
wool was woven into cloth. Augustin de Zarate, 
who in 1544 held the office of treasurer-general 
in Peru, and who wrote an account of the' con- 
quest, thus describes the llama (which he calls a 
sheep), as it was observed in the mountains of 
Chih : 

" In the places where there is no snow the na- 
tives want water ; and to supply this want they fill 
the skins of sheep with water, and make other 
living sheep carry them : for it must be remarked 
that these sheep of Peru are large enough to serve 
as beasts of burden. They resemble the camel in 
their shape, although they have not the hump on 
the back, like that animal. They can carry about 
a hundred pounds or more; and the Spaniards 
used to ride them, and they would go four or five 
leagues a day. When they are weary, they lie 
down on the ground ; and as there are no means 
of making them get up, either by beating or assist- 
ing them, the load must, of necessity, be taken off. 
When there is a man on one of them, if the beast 
is tired and is urged to go on, he turns his head 
round and discharges his saliva, which has a very 
bad odour, into the rider's face. These animals 
are of great use and profit to their masters ; for 
their wool is very good and fine, particularly of that 
species named pacas, which have very long fleeces : 
and they are of little expense for nourishment, for 
a handful of maize suffices them, and they can go 
four or five days without water. Their flesh is as 
good as that of the fat sheep of Castile. There are 
now Dublic shambles for the sale of their flesh 
Y2 



258 NATURAL HISTORY. 

in all parts of Peru where the animal is found. 
This was not the case when the Spaniards first 
came ; for when one Indian had killed a sheep, his 
neighbours came and took what they wanted, and 
then another Indian killed a sheep in his turn."* 
This last custom is probably that of all uncivilized 
people, among whom commerce is unknown ; but 
it is a singular illustration of the simplicity of these 
poor natives, who were content to take their supply 
of food, whether of fruits or of flesh, without much 
trouble either of cultivation or trafiic. In a cen- 
tury or two the arts of civilized life were, to a 
small extent, forced upon them. Captain George 
Shelvocke, an Englishman, who sailed round the 
world in 1719-22, thus describes the llamas which 
he saw at Arica, in Peru : 

"For the carriage of the guana the people at 
Arica generally use that sort of little camels which 
the Indians of Peru call llamas ; the Chilese, diilih" 
neque : and the Spaniards, cameros de la tierray 
or native sheep. The heads of these animals are 
small in proportion to their bodies, and are some- 
what in shape between the head of a horse and that 
of a sheep, the upper lips being cleft, like that of a 
hare, through which they can spit to the distance 
of ten paces against any one who offends them ; 
and if the spittle happens to fall on the face of a 
person, it causes a red itchy spot. Their necks are 
long and concavely bent downward, like that of a 
camel, which animal they greatly resemble, except 
in having no hunch on their backs, and in being 
much smaller. Their ordinary height is from four 
feet to four and a half, and their ordinary burden 
* Histoire du Perou, vol. i., p. 177. Paris, 1716. 



THE LLAMA. 25^ 

does not exceed a hundred weight. They walk, 
holding up their heads, with wonderful gravity, and 
at so regular a pace as no beating can quicken. 
At night it is impossible to make them move with 
their loads, for they lie down till these are taken 
off, and then go to graze. Their ordinary food is 
a sort of grass called yeho, somewhat like a small 
rush, but finer, and has a sharp point, with which 
all the mountains are covered exclusively. They 
eat little, and never drink, so that they are easily 
maintained. They have cloven feet, like sheep, 
and are used at the mines to carry ore to the 
mills ; and, as soon as loaded, they set off without 
any guide to the place where they are usually 
unloaded. 

" They have a sort of spur above the foot, which 
renders them sure-footed among the rocks, as it 
serves as a sort of hook to hold by.* Their hair, 
or wool rather, is long, white, gray, and russet, in 
spots, and fine, but much inferior to that of the 
vicunna (vigonia), and has a strong and disagree- 
able scent. 

" The vicunna is shaped much like the llama, but 
much smaller and lighter, their wool being extra- 
ordinarily fine and much valued. These animals 
are often hunted after the following manner : many 
Indians gather together, and drive them into some 
narrow pass, across which they have previously 
extended cords about four feet from the ground, 
having bits of wool or cloth hanging to them at 
small distances. This so frightens them that they 
dare not pass, and they gather together in a string, 
when the Indians kill them with stones tied to the 
* This is fabulous. 



260 NATURAL HISTORY. 

ends of leather thongs. Should any guanacos 
happen to be among the flock, these leap over the 
cords, and are followed by all the vicunnas. These 
guanacos are larger and more corpulent, and are 
also called viscachas. 

" There is yet another animal of this kind called 
alpagnes (alpacas), having wool of extraordinary 
fineness ; but their legs are shorter, and their 
snouts contracted in such a manner as to give 
them some resemblance to the human countenance. 

" The Indians make several uses of these crea- 
tures, some of which carry burdens of about a 
hundred weight. Their wool serves to make stuffs, 
cords, and sacks ; their bones are used for the con- 
struction of weaver's utensils ; and their dung is 
employed as fuel for dressing meat and warming 
their huts."* 

The mode of killing the vigonias, described by 
Shelvocke, prevails in Chili and Peru at the present 
day. It is affirmed that eighty thousand are thus 
killed every year solely for their wool, and that the 
species does not appear to diminish. f Gregoire 
de Bolivar says, that in his time the llamas were 
so numerous, that four millions were killed every 
year for their flesh, and that three hundred thousand 
were employed at the mines of Potosi. The ex- 
traordinary multiplication of animal life in South 
America is familiar to every reader ; the Pampas 
are covered with troops of wild horses, and the 
oxen are slaughtered by hundreds for their skins 
alone. In the Memoirs of General Miller, an 
Englishman in the service of the republic of Peru, 

* Kerr's Collection ofVoyages, vol x., p. 462. 
t Diet. Classique. 



THE LLAMA. 261 

it is Stated that wood was formerly so scarce and 
cattle so plentiful, that sheep were driven into the 
furnaces of limekilns in order to answer the pur- 
poses of fuel ; and that a decree of the king of 
Spain, prohibiting this barbarous custom, is still 
preserved in the archives of Buenos Ayres. 

This extraordinary abundance of animal food, 
and the equal fertility of many districts, where the 
finest fruits grow spontaneously, and only require 
the trouble of being gathered, has had a marked 
effect in retarding the improvement of the natives 
of South America. They are neither a pastoral 
nor an agricultural people ; and thus, surrounded 
by partial civiHzation, they remain without any 
excitement to labour, which alone could improve 
their moral and physical condition. Humboldt has 
beautifully described the state of primitive rudeness 
in which many of the tribes of South America 
remain, partly from their geographical position, 
and partly from the spontaneous bounty of their 
climate : 

" When we attentively examine this wild part of 
America, we appear to be carried back to the first 
ages, when the earth was peopled step by step ; we 
seem to assist at the birth of human societies. In 
the Old World we behold the pastoral life prepare 
a people of huntsmen for the agricultural life. In 
the New World, we look in vain for these pro- 
gressive developments of civilization, these mo- 
ments of repose, these resting-places in the life of 
a people. The luxury of vegetation embarrasses 
the Indian in the chase. As the rivers are like arms 
of the sea, the depth of the water for many months 
prevents their fishing. Those species of rumina- 



262 NATURAL HISTORY. 

ting animals which constitute the riches of the peo- 
pie of the Old World are wanting in the New. 
The bison and the musk-ox have not yet been re- 
duced to the domestic state ; the enormous multipli- 
cation of the llama and the guanaco have not pro- 
duced in the natives the habits of the pastoral life." 

The following is the scientific character of the 
species, which is indigenous only to South America : 

Teeth — Incisors, f, Canine, j-Zy, Molars, f"!. 
Total 30. 

The two toes separated ; the back without a 
hump; without horns. The female goes with 
young about six months. 



THE GIRAFFE. 263 



CHAPTER XL 

THE GIRAFFE. 

Till the year 1827, when a giraffe arrived in 
England and another in France, the animal had 
not been seen in Europe since the end of the fif- 
teenth century, when the Soldan of Egypt sent one 
to Lorenzo di Medici. This individual was repre- 
sented in the frescoes at Poggio Acajano,* near 
Florence, in which city it was very familiar with 
the inhabitants, living on the fruits of the country, 
particularly apples, and stretching up its long neck 
to the first floors of the houses to implore a meal.f 
There was a giraffe at Rome at the period of Ju- 
lius Csesar's dictatorship, which appears to have 
been the first seen in Europe ; the Roman emper- 
ors afterward exhibited them in the games of the 
circus, or in their triumphal processions : Gordian 
IIL had ten living giraffes at one time. The absence 
of the giraffe from Europe for three centurier and a 
half naturally induced a belief that the descriptions 
of this animal were in great part fabulous ; that a 
creature of such extraordinary height and apparent 
disproportions was not to be found among the actual 
works of nature ; and that it more properly be- 
longed to the group of chimeras with which the re- 

* Poggio Acajano is a villa belonging to the Grand-duke of 
Tuscany, between Florence and Prato. 
t Geoifroy St. lUlaire. 



2G4 



NATURAL HISTORY. 




Girqffef Xarijfa. Camelopardalis Giraffay LlNN^«US. — Giraffe^ 
Bdffon. 



THE GIRAFFE. 265 

gions of imagination are tenanted, the unicorns, 
and sphinxes, and satyrs, and cynocephali, of an- 
cient poets and naturalists. 

The old travellers often mentioned the camelo- 
pard in the terms of exaggeration which they nat* 
urally derived from the reports of Africans. It 
was " a beast not often scene, yet very tame, and 
of a strange composition, mixed of a libard (leop- 
ard), harte, buffe, and camel ; and by reason of his 
long legs before and shorter behind, not able to 
graze without difficulty."* Again, he was "so 
huge, that a man on horseback may passe uprighte 
under him, feeding on leaves from the tops of trees, 
and formed like a camel, "f In a very curious 
Spanish book, however, which describes an embas- 
sy from Henry III. of Castile to Tamerlane the 
Great, in 1403 (being the second sent to Tamer- 
lane by the King of Castile), there is a minute, and, 
in many respects, accurate account of the giraffe : 

" The ambassadors sent by the King of Castife, 
Henri III., to the Great Tamerlane, arrived at a 
town called Hoy, now Khoy, on the confines of Ar- 
menia, where the Persian empire commences. At 
that town they fell in with an ambassador, whom 
the sultan of Babylon had sent to Tamerlane. He 
had with him as many as twenty horsemen, and fif- 
teen camels, laden with presents, which the sultan 
sent to Tamerlane. Besides these, there were six os- 
triches, and an animal called jornuf a (giraffe), which 
animal was formed in the following manner : In 
body it was of the size of a horse, with the neck very 
long, and the fore legs much taller than the hinder 

* Purchas, book vi., chap. i. 
t Ibid, book vii., chap. vi. 

z 



266 NATURAL HISTORT. 

ones : the hoof was cloven, like that of the ox. 
From the hoof of the fore leg to the top of the 
shoulder it was sixteen hands (palmos) ; and from 
the shoulders to the head, sixteen hands more ; and 
when it raised its neck, it lifted its head so high as to 
be a wonder to all. The neck was thin, like that of 
the stag ; and so great was the disproportion of the 
length of the hinder legs to that of the fore legs, that 
one who was not acquainted with it would think it 
was sitting, although it was standing. It had the 
haunches slanting, like the buffalo, and a white belly. 
The skin was of a golden hue, and marked with large 
round white spots. In the lower part of the face it 
resembled the deer ; on the forehead it had a high 
and pointed prominence ; very large and round eyes ; 
and the ears like those of a horse ; near the ears, two 
small round horns, the greater part covered with 
hair, resembling the horns of deer on their first ap. 
pearance. Such was the length of the neck, and 
the animal raised its head so high when he chose, 
that he could eat with facility from the top of a 
lofty wall ; and from the top of a high tree it could 
reach to eat the leaves, of which it devoured great 
quantities. So that altogether it was a marvellous 
sight to one who had never seen such an animal 
before."* 

BufFon, and other zoologists, fell into the com- 
mon error of describing the giraffe as having his 
fore legs twice as long as his hind. It was not till 
within the last forty years that we obtained any 
very precise notions of the form and habits of the 
giraffe ; and we principally owe them to Le Vail- 
lant, whose narrative was, indeed, originally con- 
♦ Historia del Grand Tamerlan, &c., Madrid, 1782 



THE GIRAFFE. 267 

sidered, in some degree, fabulous, but the correct, 
ness of whose statements in this particular has 
since been abundantly confirmed. The first en- 
counter of this naturalist with the giraffe is de- 
scribed in such a picturesque manner, that our read- 
ers may be pleased with a translation of the pas- 
sage ; he was travelling in Great Namaqua-land : 

" I was now struck by a sort of distinction which 
I perceived on one of the huts ; it was entirely 
covered with the skin of a giraffe. I had never 
seen this quadruped, the tallest of all those upon 
the earth ; I knew it only from false descriptions 
and designs, and thus I could scarcely recognise 
its robe. And yet this was the skin of the giraffe. 
I was in the country which this creature inhabits ; 
I might probably see some living ones : I looked 
forward to the moment when I should be thus rec- 
ompensed, at least in part, for all the sufferings and 
annoyances of my expedition."* 

And this enthusiasm was not unnatural in M. le 
Vaillant. It was a distinction for a European to 
behold with his own eyes an animal, of whose ex- 
istence men had begun to doubt. Our own coun- 
tryman, Burchell, has expressed the same feelings : 

" Those who have acquired a taste for zoological 
information, will readily comprehend in what man- 
ner the footmarks of an animal could be interest- 
ing, or afford any particular gratification, such as 
I experienced in this day's journey, when they are 
told, that we now first distinguished the track of 
the tallest of all the quadrupeds in the world ; of 
one which, from the time of the Romans until the 
middle of the last century, was so little known to 
* Second Voyage en Afrique, torn, ii., p. 48, 4to, Paris. 



268 NATUEAL HISTORY. 

the nations of Europe, as to have been at length 
considered by most people as a fabulous creature, 
one not existing on the globe. No person who has 
read even the popular books of natural history 
could, I think, behold for the first time the ground 
over which he is walking imprinted with the recent 
footsteps of a camelopardalis, without feeling some 
strange and peculiar interest at the sight. The an- 
imal itself was not observed, but our attention was 
now awakened by the expectation of soon getting 
a full view of this extraordinary creature ; and the 
hope of being the first of the party to see it, kept 
all my men on the look-out the whole day."* 

We return to Le Vaillant : 

" One of the Namaquas, who were my guides, 
came in great haste to give me information which 
he thought would be agreeable to me. He had seen 
the strong feeling of pleasure which I had evinced 
at the sight of the skin of the giraffe ; and he had 
run to say that he had just found in the neighbour- 
hood one of these animals under a mimosa, the 
leaves of which he was browsing upon. In an in- 
stant, full of joy, I leaped upon my horse ; I made 
Bernfry (one of his men) mount another, and, fol- 
lowed by my dogs, I flew towards the mimosa. 
The giraffe was no longer there. We saw her 
cross the plain towards the west, and we hastened 
to overtake her. She was proceeding at a smart 
trot, but did not appear to be at all hurried. We 
galloped after her, and occasionally fired our mus- 
kets ; but she insensibly gained so much upon us, 
that, after having pursued her for three hours, we 
were forced to stop, because our horses were quite 
♦ Travels in Southern Africa, vol. ii., p. 248. 



THE GIRAFFE. 269 

out of breath, and we entirely lost sight of her. . . 
The pursuit had led us far away from each other 
and from the camp ; and the giraffe having made 
many turns and doubles, I was unable to direct my 
course towards home. It was noon. I already 
began to feel hunger and thirst ; and I found my- 
self alone, in a steril and arid spot, exposed to a 
burning sun, without the least shelter from the 
heat, and destitute of food." The traveller, how 
ever, shot and cooked some birds of the partridge 
genus ; and was fortunate to rejoin his com- 
panions in the evening. " The next morning my 
whole caravan joined me again. I saw five other 
giraffes, to which I gave chase ; but they employed 
so many stratagems to escape, that, after having 
pursued them the whole day, we entirely lost them 
as the night came on. I was in despair at this ill 
success The next day, the lOlh of Novem- 
ber, was the happiest of my life. By sunrise I was 
in pursuit of game, in the hope to obtain some pro- 
visions for my men. After several hours' fatigue, 
we descried, at the turn of a hill, seven giraffes, 
which my pack instantly pursued. Six of them 
went off together ; but the seventh, cut off by the 
dogs, took another way. Bernfry was walking by 
the side of his horse, but in the twinkling of an eye 
he was in the saddle, and pursued the six. For 
myself, I followed the single one at full speed ; but, 
in spite of the efforts of my horse, she got so much 
ahead of me, that, in turning a little hill, I lost 
sight of her altogether, and I gave up the pursuit. 
My dogs, however, were not so easily exhausted. 
They were soon so close upon her that she was 
obliged to stop to defend herself. From the place 
Z2 



270 NATURAL HISTORY. 

where I was I heard them give tongue with all their 
might ; and, as their voices appeared all to come 
from the same spot, I conjectured that they had got 
the animal in a corner, and I again pushed forward. 
I had scarcely got round the hill, when I perceived 
her surrounded by the dogs, and endeavouring to 
drive them away by heavy kicks. In a moment I 
was on my feet, and a shot from my carbine brought 
her to the earth. Enchanted with my victory, I 
returned to call my people about me, that they 
might assist in skinning and cutting up the animal. 
While I was looking for them, I saw Klaas Baster 
(another of his men), who kept making signals 
which I could not comprehend. At length I went 
the way he pointed, and, to my surprise, saw a gi- 
raffe standing under a large ebony-tree, assailed 
by my dogs. It was the animal I had shot, who 
had staggered to this place ; and it fell dead at the 
moment I was about to take a second shot. 

" Who could have believed that a conquest like 
this would have excited me to a transport almost 
approaching to madness ! Pains, fatigues, cruel 
privation, uncertainty as to the future, disgust 
sometimes as to the past ; all these recollections 
and feelings fled at the sight of this new prey. I 
could not satisfy my desire to contemplate it. I 
measured its enormous height. I looked from the 
animal to the instrument which had destroyed it. 
I called and recalled my people about me. Al- 
though we had combated together the largest and 
most dangerous animals, it was I alone who had 
killed the giraffe. I was now able to add to the 
riches of natural history ; I was now able to de- 
stroy the romance which attached to this animal, 



THE GIRAFFE. 371 

and to establish a truth. My people congratulated 
me on my triumph. Bernfry alone was absent ; 
but he came at last, walking at a slow pace, and 
holding his horse by the bridle. He had fallen 
from his seat and injured his shoulder. I heard not 
what he said to me. I saw not that he wanted as- 
sistance ; I spoke to him only of my victory. He 
showed me his shoulder ; I showed him my giraffe. 
I was intoxicated, and I should not have thought 
even of my own wounds."* 

" The giraffe," says Le Vaillant, " ruminates, as 
every animal does that .possesses, at the same time, 
horns and cloven feet. It grazes also in the same 
way ; but not often, because the country which it 
inhabits has little pasturage. Its ordinary food is 
the leaf of a sort of mimosa, called by the natives 
kanaap, and by the colonists kameeldoorn. This 
tree being only found in the country of the Nama- 
quas, may probably afford a reason why the giraffe 
is there fixed, and why he is not seen in those re- 
gions of Southern Africa where the tree does not 
grow. 

" Doubtless the most beautiful part of his body 
is the head. The mouth is small ; the eyes are 
brilliant and full. Between the eyes and above 
the nose is a swelling, very prominent and well de- 
fined. This prominence is not a fleshy excres- 
cence, but an enlargement of the bony substance ; 
and it seems to be similar to the two little lumps 
or protuberances with which the top of his head is 
armed, and which, being about the size of a hen's 
egg, spring, on each side, at the commencement of 
the mane. The two jaws have on each side six 
* Second Voyage, torn, ii., p. 54. 



272 NATURAL HISTORY. 

molar teeth ; but the lower jaw has, beyond these, 
eight incisive teeth, while the upper jaw has none. 

" The hoofs, which are cleft and have no nails, 
resemble those of the ox. We may remark, at first 
sight, that those of the fore feet are larger than 
those of the hind. The leg is very slender, but the 
knees have a prominence, because the animal 
kneels when he lies down. There is also a larger 
callosity on the breast, which would lead one to 
conclude that he generally rests on that part. 

" If I had not myself killed the giraffe, I should 
have believed, as have many naturalists, that the 
fore legs are much longer than the hind. This is 
an error ; for the legs have, in general, the propor- 
tion of those of other quadrupeds. I say in gen- 
eral, because in this genus there are varieties, as 
there are in animals of the same species. Thus, for 
example, mares are lower before than stallions of 
an equal height. What has led to this error as to 
the difference between the legs of the giraffe, is the 
height of the withers, which, according to the ani- 
mal's age, may exceed the height of the rump by 
sixteen or twenty inches, and which disproportion, 
when we see it at a distance, must have led to the 
beUef that its legs were longer before than behind. 

His defence, as that of the horse and 

other hoofed animals, consists in kicks ; and his 
hinder limbs are so light and his blows so rapid, 
that the eye cannot follow them. They are suffi- 
cient for his defence against the lion. He never 

employs his horns in resisting any attack 

The giraffes, male and female, resemble each other 
in their exterior in their youth. Their obtuse 
horns are then terminated by a knot of long hair : 



y^ 



THE GIRAFFE. 273 

the female preserves this peculiarity some time, but 
the male loses it at the age of three years. The 
hide, which is at first of a light red, becomes of a 
deeper colour as the animal advances in age, and 
is at length of a yellow brown in the female, and of 
a brown approaching to black in the male. By 
this difference of colour the male may be distin- 
guished from the female at a distance. The skin 
varies in both sexes, as to the distribution and form 
of the spots. The female is not so high as the 
male, and the prominence of the front is not so 
marked. She has four teats. According to the 
account of the natives, she goes with young about 
twelve months, and has one at a birth." 

The mode in which it lays hold of the succulent 
branches of trees, and many of its other motions. 




are shown in the annexed sketch, from the pencil 
of Mr. Agasse. 



274 NATURAL HISTORY. 

The differences between individuals of the same 
species of animals — to say nothing of varieties — 
have ordinarily produced considerable contradiction 
in the statements of the most accurate observers. 
Thus Mr. Davis, who regarded the giraffe as one 
accustomed to the movements of animals, differs 
from M. Geoffrey St. Hilaire with regard to the 
pace of the giraffe. Again, M. Acerbi, who saw 
both the giraffes of England and France at Alex- 
andria, as well as two others, differs from Mr. 
Davis as to the difficulty which the animal may feel 
in reaching to the ground. In a published letter, he 
says, " there are few naturalists who have not con- 
tributed to perpetuate the vulgar error, that 'in 
eating and drinking from the ground, the giraffe is 
compelled to stretch his fore legs amazingly for- 
ward.' Some even assert that *he is obliged to 
kneel down.' Of the four animals which fell under 
my examination, three took their food from the 
ground with comparative facility ; and one of them 
was scarcely under the necessity of moving its fore 

legs at all. I should infer that every giraffe, 

in a natural state, is enabled to eat or drink from 
the ground without inconvenience ; and that, where 
any difficulty exists in this respect, it is the effect 
of habit, acquired in the progress of domestication." 

These contradictions in minute points are some- 
times startling; but it is to be remembered that 
even the same animal is to be seen in different cir- 
cumstances. Sir Everard Home fancied that the 
giraffe preferred licking the hand of a lady to that 
of a man ; Mr. Davis tells us he never saw any 
such exhibition of politeness. In one point all the 
observers of the European giraffes agree, that they 



THE GIRAFFE. 275 

never make any noise whatever. Farther, they 
appear to consider that the animal would be use- 
less to man in a state of domestication. M. Acer- 
bi has an anecdote illustrative of this point : 

" When at Alexandria, I had one day ordered 
the two giraffes (a male and female) taken at Dar- 
fur to be led up and down the square in front of 
my house : among the crowd collected on the oc- 
casion were some Bedouins of the Desert. On in- 
quiring of one of them whether he had ever seen 
similar animals before, he replied that he had not ; 
and I then asked him in Arabic, ' Taib di ? Do they 
please you?' To which he rejoined, ' Mustaib,' or, 
' I do not like them.' Having desired my inter- 
preter to inquire the motives of his disapproval, he 
answered, ' that it did not carry like a horse ; it did 
not serve for field labours like an ox ; did not yield 
hair like a camel, nor flesh and milk like a goat ; 
and on this account it was not to his liking.' " 

After all, it is a narrow view of the economy of 
Providence, and perhaps a selfish one, to limit our 
notions of the use of any being in the wide field of 
creation by a reference to its ability to furnish ben- 
efits to ourselves. That they all advance some 
wise purpose in the arrangement of the world, is 
evident from the care which has been observed to 
provide every species with the means for its pres- 
ervation. Those which are weak, and liable to be 
destroyed by numberless enemies, have an extraor- 
dinary fecundity ; those which are powerful and 
dangerous multiply very slowly ; and though their 
existence depends upon precarious supplies, they 
have wonderful powers of availing themselves of 
the food destined to their peculiar natures ; those 



276 NATURAL HISTORY. 

which are gregarious have in their combinations 
an adequate protection against the ordinary at- 
tacks of the fiercer beasts ; and those which are 
few in number, such as the giraffe, have the means 
of obtaining food in a pecuhar manner ; live in sol- 
itary districts, where the wants of pasture neither 
brings the herd nor their destroyers ; and have 
great quickness of sight and hearing, and the abil- 
ity of rapid flight. Among the peculiarities by 
which the giraffe is enabled to secure his race 
from the attacks of the stronger, is the construc- 
tion of his eye, by which he can see his enemy on 
every side. 

The teeth of the giraffe are, in number and ar- 
rangement, as follows : 

Incisors, |, Canine, f If , Molar, |z-f . Total, 32. 



CHAPTER XII. 

ANTELOPES. 

The Giraffe is classed among naturalists in the 
same great division with the Deer and the Ante- 
lope. Each of these genera are described as ru- 
minants, having either permanent horns on their 
heads, or bony substances which fall off and are 
renewed. 

1. The first tribe, the deer, has bony substances, 
generally branched, which fall off annually, and are 
annually renewed, of a larger size than the pre- 



ANTELOPES. 277 

ceding year, always existing on the head of the 
male, and sometimes on the head of the female. 

2. The giraffe forms the second tribe, which is 
distinguished by having horns or prominences on 
the frontal bone, covered with a soft skin, which 
is a continuation of the skin of the head. These 
horns exist in both sexes, and are permanent. 

3. The third tribe, the antelope, is marked by 
the prominences of the frontal bone being covered 
with a sheath of horn, composed of hardened fibres, 
which grows in layers, and increases during the 
whole life. 

We thus see that the antlers of the deer are 
formed of bone, and annually fall off and are renew- 
ed ; that the prominences of the giraffe are cov- 
ered over with the skin of the forehead ; and that 
the horns of the antelopes are hard sheaths, which 
are permanent, and increase in size every year. 

Buffon considered that the age of an antelope 
was indicated by the number of rings on his horn. 
This was an error ; for Pallas has shown, that al- 
though there is a real augmentation of the number 
of rings as the animal advances in age, yet as the 
horns increase less and less as the animal becomes 
older, there is no equal relation between the prog- 
ress of life and the growth of the horn. 

With the exception of four species, A, Gazella, 
A, caama, A, oryx, and A» CucopJma, the females 
of the antelope tribe have no horns. 

Almost all the tribe of antelopes are of a gentle 
and social nature. In general, with the exception 
of many of the smaller species of Southern Africa, 
they live in large herds. Their sight, their hear, 
ing, and their smell, are of extreme delicacy 
A A 



278 NATURAL HISTORY. 

From the proportion of the volume of the auditory 
cavity, which determines the power of the sense of 
hearing, the ear of the antelope has a greater quick, 
ness than that of any other ruminating animal. 
The nylghau, the gnu, and the chamois, are excep- 
tions to this superiority, as regards the develop, 
ment of the auditory cavity ; and this may arise 
from the former inhabiting plains, where they are 
more exposed to danger, and the latter living in 
places less accessible by their enemies. 

The name of antelope, although it appears of 
Greek origin, was not used by the ancients. In a 
work attributed to Eustathius,* who lived in the 
time of Constantino, the name of antholopos is ap- 
plied to an animal with long horns, jagged like a 
saw.f Many writers of the middle ages have ap- 
plied to the same animal the designations of antlioU 
opos, antaplos, and aptalos. It is conjectured that 
this animal was the oryx, a species of antelope 
which, according to a fabulous notion, had only one 
horn. PantJialops, in the old language of Egypt, 
was the unicorn. It is supposed by comparative 
anatomists that the rhinoceros was the unicorn of 
Scripture. 

The most elegant of antelopes is the gazelle. 
Its height is twenty inches, and its length from 
head to tail twenty-two inches. Its skin is beau, 
tifully sleek, its body extremely graceful, its head 
peculiarly light, its ears highly flexible, its eyes 
most brilliant and glancing, and its legs as slender 
as a reed. The Arabian poets have applied their 
choicest epithets to the beauty of the gazelle, and 
* Not the Commentator on Homer. f Cuvier. 



ANTELOPES. 



279 




The Gazelle, Antilope Doreasy BuFFON. 

their descriptions have been adopted into our own 
poetry. Byron has adopted the image in speaking 
of the dark eyes of an Eastern beauty : 

** Go look, on those of the gazelle." 

When the Arabian describes his mistress, she is 
" an antelope in beauty ;" " his gazelle employs all 
his soul ;" and thus, in their figurative language, 
perfect beauty and gazelle beauty are synonymous. 
These animals are spread, in innumerable herds, 
from Arabia to the river Senegal, in Africa. Lions 
and panthers feed upon them ; and man chaces 
them with the dog, the ounce, and the falcon. 



280 



NATURAL HISTORY. 




Antilope Pygarga, Pallas. 

The beautiful animal of which the above is a 
representation was exhibited at Exeter Change, 
London, in 1828. It was called by its keepers the 
Lyre-Antelope, but many of the gazelles have their 
horns in the form from which this name was given. 
The rings upon the horns, which are very decided, 
form a marked characteristic of this species. It 
was considerably larger than the gazelle, being 
about three feet high. The Pygarga, to which spe- 
cies we have reason to think this individual ante- 



SPRINGBOKS. 281 

lope belonged, inhabits Southern Africa and parts 
of Asia. 

The Springhok (the Antilope eucJiore of Burchell) 
is well known to the colonists at the Cape. " It is 
easily distinguished," says Burchell, " from all the 
known species, by the very long white hair along 
the middle of the back, which, lying flat, is nearly 
concealed by the fur on each side, and is expanded 
only when it takes those extraordinary leaps which 
first suggested its name." Mr. Burchell's descrip- 
tion of a herd of springboks is very picturesque : 

" At this high level we entered upon a very ex- 
tensive, open plain, abounding to an incredible de- 
gree in wild animals ; among which were several 
large herds of quakkas, and many wilde-heests or 
gnues : but the springbucks were far the most nu- 
merous, and, like flocks of sheep, completely cov- 
ered several parts of the plain. Their uncertain 
movements rendered it impossible to estimate their 
number ; but, I believe, if I were to guess it at two 
thousand, I should still be within the truth. This 
is one of the most beautiful of the antelopes of 
Southern Africa ; and it is certainly one of the 
most numerous. The plain afforded no other ob- 
ject to fix the attention ; and even if it had pre- 
sented many, I should not readily have ceased ad- 
miring those elegant animals, or have been divert- 
ed from watching their manners. It was only oc- 
casionally that they took those remarkable leaps, 
which have been the origin of the name ; but, when 
grazing or moving at leisure, they walked or trot- 
ted like other antelopes, or as the common deer. 
When pursued, or hastening their pace, they fre. 
A A 2 



.,j^ 



282 NATURAL HISTORY. 

quently took an extraordinary bound, rising with 
curved or elevated backs high into the air, gener- 
ally to the height of eight feet, and appearing as 
if about to take flight. Some of the herds moved 
by us almost within musket shot ; and I observed 
that in crossing the beaten road, the greater number 
cleared it by one of those flying leaps. As the 
road was quite smooth and level with the plain, 
there was no necessity for their leaping over it ; 
but it seemed that the fear of a snare, or a natural 
disposition to regard man as an enemy, induced 
them to mistrust even the ground which he had 
trodden."* 

The migrations of innumerable companies of 
springboks, from unknown regions in the interior 
of Africa to the abodes of civilization, are among 
the most extraordinary examples of the fecundity 
of animal life. The vast quantity of a species of 
birds of South America, which produce the guano 
(a manure) in sufficient abundance to be a great 
article of commerce ; the flocks of pigeons of North 
America, the locusts of Africa, are not more stri. 
king than the herds of springboks. They do not 
come alone to the cultivated plains. "The lion 
has been seen to migrate, and walk in the midst of 
the compressed phalanx, with only as much room 
between him and his victims as the fears of those 
immediately around could procure by pressing out- 
ward. "■(" The immense migratory swarms of these 
animals, which occasionally pour themselves like a 
deluge from the Bushman territory upon the north- 
ern frontiers of the Cape colony, have never been 

* Travels in Southern Africa, vol. ii., p. 109. 

t Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, by Griffiths, vol. iv., p. 209. 



SPRINGBOKS, 283 

more vividly described than by Captain Stocken- 
strom, the chief civil commissioner at the Cape. 

He says, " It is scarcely possible for a person 
passing over some of the extensive tracts of the 
interior, and admiring that elegant antelope the 
springbok, thinly scattered over the plains, and 
bounding in playful innocence, to figure to himself 
that these ornaments of the desert can often become 
as destructive as the locusts themselves. The in- 
credible numbers which sometimes pour in from 
the north during protracted droughts, distress the 
farmer inconceivably. Any attempt at numerical 
computation would be vain ; and by trying to come 
near the truth the writer would subject himself, in 
the eyes of those who have no knowledge of the 
country, to a suspicion that he was availing him- 
self of a traveller's assumed privilege. Yet it is 
well known in the interior, that on the approach 
of the Trek'hokken (as these migratory swarms 
are called), the grazier makes up his mind to look 
for pasture for his flocks elsewhere, and considers 
himself entirely dispossessed of his lands until 
heavy r.ains fall. Every attempt to save the culti- 
vated fields, if they be not enclosed by high and 
thick hedges, proves abortive. Heaps of dry ma- 
nure (the fuel of the Sneeuwbergen and other parts) 
are placed close to each other round the fields, and 
set on fi.re in the evening, so as to cause a den^e 
smoke, by which it is hoped the antelopes will be 
deterred from their inroads ; but the dawn of day 
exposes the inefficacy of the precaution, by show- 
ing the lands, which appeared proud of their prom- 
ising verdure the evening before, covered with 
thousands, and reaped level with the ground. In- 



284 NATURAL HISTORY. 

stances have been known of some of those prodi- 
gious droves passing through flocks of sheep, and 
numbers of the latter carried along with the torrent, 
being lost to the owners, and becoming a prey to 
the wild beasts. As long as these droughts last, 
their inroads and depredations continue ; and the 
havoc committed upon them is of course great, as 
they constitute the food of all classes : but no sooner 
do the rains fall than they disappear, and in a few 
days become as scarce on the northern borders as 
in the more protected districts of Bruintjes-Hoogte 
and Camdeboo. 

" The African colonists themselves can form no 
conception of the cause of the extraordinary ap- 
pearance of these animals ; and, from their not be- 
ing able to account for it, those who have not been 
eyewitnesses of such scenes consider their accounts 
exaggerated ; but a little more minute inspection 
of the country south of the Orange River solves 
the difficulty at once. The immense desert tracts 
between that river and our colony, westward of 
the Zeekoe River, though destitute of permanent 
springs, and, therefore, uninhabitable by human be- 
ings for any length of time, are, notwithstanding, 
interspersed with stagnant pools and vieys, or natu. 
ral reservoirs of brackish water, which, however 
bad, satisfies the game. In these endless plains, 
the springboks multiply, undisturbed by the hunter 
(except when occasionally the Bosjesman destroys 
a few with his poisoned arrows), until the country 
literally swarms with them ; when, perhaps, one 
year out of four or Rve, a lasting drought leaves 
the pools exhausted, and parches up the soil, natu. 
rally inclined to sterility. Thus want, principally 



SrRINGBOKS. 285 

of water, drives those myriads of animals either to 
the Orange River or to the colony, when they in- 
trude in the manner above described. But when 
the bountiful thunder-clouds pour their torrents upon 
our burned-up country, reanimating vegetation, 
and restoring plenty to all graminivorous animals, 
then, when we could, perhaps, afford to harbour 
those unwelcome visiters, their own instinct and 
our persecutions propel them again to their more 
steril but peaceful and secluded plains, to recruit 
the numbers lost during their migration, and to re- 
sume their attacks upon us when their necessities 
shall again compel them." 

Upon this interesting subject we are favoured 
with some original remarks by Mr. Pringle : 

"To the above description of the migratory 
swarms of springboks, I have little to add from my 
own observation. I once passed through a most 
astonishing multitude, scattered over the grassy 
plains near the Little Fish River. I could not, 
for my own part, profess to estimate their number 
with any degree of accuracy ; but they literally 
whitened, or rather speckled, the face of the coun- 
try as far as the eye could reach over those far- 
stretching plains ; and a gentleman, better acquaint- 
ed than myself with such scenes, who was riding 
with me, affirmed that we could not have fewer of 
these animals at one time under our eye than twen- 
ty-five or thirty thousand. 

" I am not aware whether any species of antelope 
nearly allied to the springbok is to be found in the 
northern parts of Africa or in Palestine ; but it is a 
singular circumstance, that the name of this animal, 
in the Bichuana language {izeie), is precisely the 



286 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



same as that used in the Song of Solomon to desig- 
nate an animal of the antelope family, erroneously 
rendered roe in our translation.* 

"The springbok is easily tamed when caught 
young. I have seen it, in several places, reared as 
a plaything for the children, at the farms of the col- 
onists, sometimes playing like a pet lamb about the 
doors, among the numerous swarms of dogs and 
poultry ; in other instances accompanying the flocks 
of sheep and goats to pasture, and returning as reg- 
ularly and quietly as the rest. 

" Such facts demonstrate how easy it would be, 
with a little care and management, to enlarge the 
list of domesticated animals, by adding to them 
many species of such as are at present considered 
the most shy and impracticable." 




The Gnu. Antilope Givas, BuFFON. 

In the well-arranged menagerie of Mr. Cross, 
* Chap, ii., 9-17. 



THE GNU. 287 

London, there are two fine specimens of the malo 
and female gnu. The preceding, is a portrait of the 
male. These individuals are tolerably gentle, but 
somewhat uncertain in their tempers. 

We are indebted to Mr. Pringle for the follow- 
ing account of this animal, as seen by him in its 
native regions : 

" The curious animal called gnu by the Hotten- 
tots, wilde heest (z. e,, wild ox) by the Dutch colo- 
nists, was an inhabitant of the mountains adjoining 
the Scottish settlement at Bavian's River, and I had 
therefore opportunities of very frequently seeing it 
both singly and in small herds. Though usually, 
and perhaps correctly, by naturalists ranked among 
the antelope race, it appears to form, evidently, one 
of those intermediate links which connect, as it 
were, the various tribes of animals in a harmoni- 
ous system in the beautiful arrangement of nature. 
As the hyana dog, or ' wilde hond,^ of South Africa 
connects the dog and wolf tribe with that of the 
hyaena, in like manner does the gnu form a grace- 
ful link between the buffalo and the antelope. Pos- 
sessing the distinct features which, according to 
naturalists, are peculiar to the latter tribe, the gnu 
exhibits, at the same time, in his general aspect, 
figure, motions, and even the texture and taste of 
his flesh, qualities which partake very strongly of 
the bovine character. Among other peculiarities 
I observed that, like the bufialo or the ox, he is 
strangely affected by the sight of scarlet ; and it 
was one of our amusements, when approaching 
these animals, to hoist a red handkerchief on a pole, 
and to observe them caper about, lashing their 
flanks with their long tails, and tearing up the 



288 NATURAL HISTORY. 

ground with their hoofs, as if they were violently 
excited, and ready to rush down upon us ; and 
then all at once, when we were about to fire upon 
them, to see them bound away, and again go 
prancing round us at a safer distance. When 
wounded, they are reported to be sometimes rather 
dangerous to the huntsman ; but, though we shot 
several at different times, I never witnessed any in- 
stance of this. On one occasion a young one, ap- 
parently only a week or two old, whose mother had 
been shot, followed the huntsman home, and I at- 
tempted to raise it on cow's milk. In a few days 
it appeared quite as tamd as a common calf, and 
seemed to be thriving ; but afterward, from some 
unknown cause, it sickened and died. I heard, 
however, of more than one instance in that part of 
the colony, where the gnu, thus caught young, had 
been reared with the domestic cattle, and had be- 
come so tame as to go regularly out to pasture 
with the herds, without exhibiting any inclination 
to resume its natural freedom ; but, in consequence 
of a tendency which the farmers say they evinced 
to catch and to communicate to the cattle a dan- 
gerous infection, the practice of rearing them as 
curiosities has been abandoned. I know not if 
this imputation be correct, but it is true that infec- 
tious disorders do occasionally prevail to a most 
destructive extent among the wild as well as the 
domesticated animals in South Africa, and espe- 
cially among the tribes of larger antelopes. 

" There is another species of gnu found farther 
to the northward, of which I saw a single speci- 
men in the colony, which, in the shape of the horns 
and some other particulars, still more resembles 



THE HARTSBEESTS. 289 

the ox* This specimen has been described by 
Burchell under the name o£ antilope taurina.^^ 




The Gnu's Head. 

Mr. Pringle has furnished us with the following 
description of the harteheest (antilope huhalis), which 
also came under his observation. 

" The harteheest is one of the largest and hand* 
somest of the antelope family. It is nearly of the 
same height as the gnu, but of a more slender and 
elegant shape. It was pretty numerous on the 
mountains around our settlement, and not unfre- 
quently furnished us with game. It had many 
other enemies, I observed, nnd some of them only 
less formidable than man, the great destroyer. In 
the nooks oC the narrow ravines, through which the 
wild game are wont to descend from the steep and 
stony mountains, for change of pasturage, or to 
drink at the fountains that ooze from their declivi- 
ties, I have frequently found fresh sculls and horns 
of the hartebeest, those sliglit relics being all that 
remained to indicate that there the lion had sur- 
prised and rent his prey, and that the voracious 
B B 



290 NATURAL HISTORY. 

hysena had followed and feasted on the fragments, 
devouring even the bones, except the scull and a 
few other unmanageable portions. Though the 
common hysena is no match in speed for the fleet 
full-grown hartebeest, he probably picks up many 
of the young ones, and is always sure at least of 
the aged or infirm. The hyaena dog is probably 
still more destructive. Too slender to attack such 
an animal as the hartebeest individually, these 

* dogs of the desert' associate themselves in packs 
to hunt down this and the other large antelopes. 
I once witnessed a chase of this kind, in which a 
noble hartebeest, hard pressed by a troop of these 

* wilde-honden' (as the boors call them), dashed 
across our garden and orchard ground, and on- 
ward among our huts, at noonday. The wild dogs, 
on hearing the halloo that was raised by some of 
the people who witnessed this scene, stayed their 
quest for a brief space, as if alarmed ; but, before 
we could get a gun or two to attack them, they 
vigorously renewed the chase down the valley, 
making a small circuit to avoid the houses ; and, 
as the poor antelope seemed sore spent, I have no 
doubt that he would be speedily run down, notwith- 
standing the slight advantage he gained by our in- 
terference. 

" The largest of all the South African antelopes, 
the Oreas, called by the colonists the eland or elk, 
was also an inhabitant of our mountains, though 
more rare than the gnu or hartebeest. This ani- 
mal, though different in figure, is nearly as large 
in size as an ordinary ox. It is a timid and harm- 
less animal, and neither so swift nor so elegant as 



I 



THE CHAMOIS. 291 

most of those of its tribe that I have mentioned. 
When fat it runs so shiggishly that the boors in 
hunting it will frequently ride close up, and, with- 
out expending a single shot, stab it with their hunt- 
ing-knives. Its flesh is not so dry as that of most 
of the antelope tribe, and approaches more to the 
flavour and quality of beef. From its value in 
this respect, and its large size, combined with its 
deficiency in means of self-protection, this animal 
is now become very rare, even in the remotest parts 
of the Cape Colony ; and, in a short period, will 
probably be altogether extirpated within its limits." 

A few years ago the king had several Chamois 
in Windsor Great Park, but they soon died. In 
the following page is a portrait of one of those in- 
dividuals. 

The chamois inhabits the most inaccessible parts 
of the woody regions of the great mountains of 
Europe. He does not, as the bouquetin, climb to 
their most pointed summits, and he descends not 
into the plains. Like the klipspringer of the Cape, 
he is remarkable for the wonderful extent and pre- 
cision of his leaps. He bounds over the chasms 
of rocks ; he springs from one projection to another 
with unerring certainty ; he throws himself from a 
height of twenty or even thirty yards upon the 
smallest ledge, where there is scarcely room for 
his feet to plant themselves. This extraordinary 
power of balancing the body — of instantly finding 
the centre of gravity — is a peculiarity of all the 
goat tribe, to which the chamois is nearly allied. 
The ability of the eye to measure distances with 
such undeviating exactness is associated with this 



292 



NATURAL HISTORY. 




The Chamois. Antilope RupicaprOy BuFFON. 

power of finding the centre of gravity. In the 
chamois these are instinctive faculties, which he 
possesses almost from the moment of his birth. 
They are not the result of training ; for the young 
chamois has only to acquire the necessary strength 
to be able to imitate the feats of his more practised 
companions. How different is the process by 
which man obtains the full exercise of his physical 
powers ! The awkward efforts of the infant for 
the first two years of his life are principally di- 
rected to the acquisition of the ability, by constant 
experiments, of poising his body, of ascertaining 
the size and relative position of objects by the touch. 



i 



THE CHAMOIS. 293 

and of measuring distances by the eye. Through- 
out Kfe, we cannot be placed in a new situation, in 
which the exercise of these faculties is demanded, 
without feeling how com.pletely our powers are the 
result of experience. We walk safely and easily 
upon a plane surface, because we have learned to do 
so ; but if we slip from any elevation upon a nar- 
row ledge, with what extreme difficulty do we 
maintain our footing ! Yet another man, possess- 
ing originally no greater ability of balancing his 
body, runs along a parapet without fear or danger. 
Again, we are constantly mistrusting the distance 
and size of objects. The accuracy of the eye en- 
tirely depends upon its practice. To one unac- 
customed to the sea, a ship upon the horizon ap- 
pears at no great distance ; the sailor can tell that 
it is far away, and, pretty nearly, how many miles 
it is off. The practice which is necessary to the 
exercise of human vision is indeed wonderful ; but 
the faculty is so gradually acquired, that we may 
easily deceive ourselves into the belief that it is in- 
stinctive. Dr. Thomas Brown has put this strong- 
ly in his lectures : " In those striking cases which 
are sometimes presented to us, of the acquisition of 
sight in mature life, in consequence of a surgical 
operation, after vision had been obstructed from in- 
fancy, it has been found that the actual magnitude 
and figure, and position of bodies, were to be learned 
like a new language ; that all objects seemed equal- 
ly close to the eye ; and that a sphere and a cube, 
of each of which the tangible figure was previously 
known, were not so distinguishable in the mere 
sensation of vision, that the one could be said with 
certainty to be the cube, and the other the sphere. 
B b2 



294 NATURAL HISTORY. 

In short, what has been supposed, with every ap 
pearance of probability, was demonstrated by ex* 
periment — -that we learn to see."'*' 

And yet man, by constant training, may attain aa 
excellence in the employment of his senses very 
little inferior to the instinctive powers of the lower 
animals. The chamois hunters of the Alps are 
remarkable examples of what he may accomplish 
by courage, perseverance, and constant experiment. 
If man fairly bring his physical powers and his 
mechanical aids into a contest even with such sur^ 
prising faculties as the chamois possesses, the tri, 
umph is his ; and this triumph shows us that there 
are few things beyond the reach of human energy. 

The chamois hunter sets out upon his expedition 
of fatigue and danger generally in the night. His 
object is to find himself at the break of day in the 
most elevated pastures, where the chamois comes 
to feed before the flocks shall have arrived there. 
The chamois feeds only at morning and evening, 
When the hunter has nearly reached the spot 
where he expects to find his prey, he reconnoitres 
with a telescope. If he finds not the chamois, he 
mounts still higher ; but if he discovers him, he en. 
deavours to climb above him and to get nearer, by 
passing round some ravine, or gliding behind some 
emmence or rock. When he is near enough to 
distinguish the horns of the animal (which are 
small, round, pointed, and bent backward like a 
book, as in the portrait) he rests his rifle upon a 
rock, and takes his aim with great coolness. He 
rarely misses. This rifle is often double-barrelled. 
If the chamois falls, he runs to his prey, makes 
* Lecture xxviii. 



THE CHAMOIS. 295 

sure of him by cutting the hamstrings, and ap- 
plies himself to consider by what way he may best 
regain his village. If the route is very difficult, he 
contents himself with skinning the chamois ; but if 
the way is at all practicable with a load, he throws 
the animal over his shoulder, and bears it home to 
his family, undaunted by the distance he has to go, 
and the precipices he has to cross. 

But when, as is more frequently the case, the 
vigilant animal perceives the hunter, he flies with 
the greatest swiftness into the glaciers, leaping with 
incredible speed over the frozen snows and pointed 
rocks. It is particularly difficult to approach the 
chamois when there are many together. While 
the herd graze, one of them is planted as a senti- 
nel on the point of some rock, which commands all 
the avenues of their pasturage ; and when he per- 
ceives an object of alarm, he makes a sharp hissing 
noise, at the sound of which all the rest run to- 
wards him, to judge for themselves of the nature of 
the danger. If they discover a beast of prey or a 
hunter, the most experienced puts himself at their 
head ; and they bound along, one after the other, 
into the most inaccessible places. 

It is then that the labours of the hunter com- 
jmence ; for then, carried away by the excitement, 
he knows no danger. He crosses the snows with- 
out thinking of the abysses which they may cover ; 
he plunges into the most dangerous passes of the 
mountains ; he climbs up, he leaps from rock to 
rock, without considering how he can return. The 
night often finds him in the heat of the pursuit ; but 
he does not give it up for this obstacle. He con- 
siders that the ch^pois will stop during the dark- 



296 NATURAL HISTORY. 

ness as well as himself, and that on the morrow he 
may again reach them. He passes then the night, 
not at the foot of a tree, nor in a cave covered 
with verdure, as does the hunter of the plain, but 
upon a naked rock, or upon a heap of rough stones, 
without any sort of shelter. He is alone, without 
fire, without light ; but he takes from his bag a 
bit of cheese and some of the barley-bread which 
is his ordinary food — bread so hard that he is 
obliged to break it between two stones, or to cleave 
it with the axe which he always carries with him 
to cut steps which shall serve for his ladder up the 
rocks of ice. His frugal meal being soon ended, 
he puts a stone under his head, and is presently 
asleep, dreaming of the way the chamois has taken. 
He is awakened by the freshness of the morning 
air ; he arises, pierced through with cold ; he 
measures with his eyes the precipices which he 
must yet climb to reach the chamois ; he drinks a 
little brandy (of which he always carries a small 
provision), throws his bag across his shoulder, and 
again rushes forward to encounter new dangers. 
These daring and persevering hunters often remain 
whole days in the dreariest solitudes of the gla- 
ciers of Chamouni ; and during this time their fam- 
ilies, and, above all, their unhappy wives, feel the 
keenest alarm for their safety. 

And yet, with the full knowledge of the dangers 
to be encountered, the chase of the chamois is the 
object of an insurmountable passion. Saussure 
knew a handsome young man, of the district of 
Chamouni, who was about to be married ; and the 
adventurous hunter thus addressed the naturalist : 
" My grandfather was killed in the chase of the 



THE CHAMOIS. 297 

chamois ; my father was killed also ; and I am so 
certain that I shall be killed also, that I call this 
bag, which I always carry hunting, my winding- 
sheet ; I am sure that I shall have no other ; and yet, 
if you were to offer to make my fortune upon the 
condition that I should renounce the chase of the 
chamois, I should refuse your kindness." Saussure 
adds, that he went several journeys in the Alps with 
this young man ; that he possessed astonishing 
skill and strength ; but that his temerity was great- 
er than either ; and that, two years afterward, he 
met the fate which he had anticipated, by his foot 
failing on the brink of a precipice to which he had 
leaped. It is the chase itself which attracts these 
people more than the value of the prey ; it is the 
alternation of hope and fear, the continual excite- 
ment, the very dangers themselves, which render 
the chamois-hunter indifferent to all other pleasures. 
The same passion for hardy adventure constitutes 
the chief charm of the soldier's and sailor's life ; and, 
like all other passions, to be safe and innocent, 
it must be indulged in great moderation, near akin 
as it is to one of our most senseless and mischiev- 
ous propensities, gambling. 

The very few individuals of those who grow old 
in this trade bear on their countenances the traces 
of the life which they have led. They have a wild, 
and somewhat haggard and desperate air, by which 
they may be recognised in the midst of a crowd. 
Many of the superstitious peasants believe that they 
are sorcerers ; that they have commerce with the 
evil spirit, and that it is he that throws them over 
the precipices. When the enormous glaciers and 
summits of Mont Blanc are beheld from the val- 



298 NATURAL HISTORY. 

leys, it is indeed almost miraculous that any mortal 
should be found hardy enough to climb them ; and 
it is not unnatural that a simple peasantry should 
believe that something above human excitement 
had inspired these perilous undertakings. To the 
traveller, or to the native of the vale of Chamouni, 
Mont Blanc is an object of awe and astonishment ; 
and the devotion of the instructed, and the supersti- 
tion of the unenlightend, are perhaps equally attri- 
butes to the God of nature, vi^hen they thus look 
upon one of the grandest of natural objects, 

" The dread ambassador from earth to heaven." 

The chamois is now getting rare in Switzer- 
land, in consequence of the inhabitants being al- 
lowed to hunt him at all seasons ; but the race may 
be expected again to multiply, as the old regula- 
tions for determining the periods of hunting are 
again introduced. They are rarely caught aUve, 
and can only be tamed when taken very young. 



BEEIt. 



299 



CHAPTER XIV, 

DEER. 




,,,,,s\c\Nr,*f\>^v'^ 



The Red Deer. 

After the account we have given of the hunt- 
ing of the chamois, where the antelope is fairly pit- 
ted against the man ; strength for strength, strata- 



300 NATURAL HISTORY. 

gem for stratagem, and danger for danger, how 
poor must our modern huntings appear ! A field 
of eager sportsmen, fortified against a little fatigue 
by every excitement of a morning meal, and mount- 
ed upon the swiftest and surest horses, meet to pur- 
sue a stag, that is brought to some favourable spot 
in a cart. The poor creature has probably been 
hunted several times before ; for it is the object of 
the huntsman to save him from the dogs if possi- 
ble, that he may be again tormented. But he well 
remembers the first fearful cry of the distant 
hounds ; he hears again the encouraging voices of 
the men ; the clatter of horses' feet ring again in 
his ear ; he dreads that he shall find no river to 
baffle his followers, who must ride to the nearest 
bridge, while he swims fearlessly across the stream ; 
he recollects that the sheltering wood was no pro- 
tection to him, and that the dogs followed him even 
to the sheher of the peasant's hovel, when he threw 
himself upon man for succour : he was rescued, it 
is true, from their devouring teeth ; but he felt all 
the agonies of anticipated death. And can the 
creature thus renew such feelings without intense 
suffering, or his pursuers so excite them without 
cruelty ? In spite of all the trappings of modern 
stag-hunting, it is just as unworthy in its principle 
as the bull-baitings and dog-fights of the populace ; 
for its object is the same — the torture of an unof- 
fending creature for our own amusement. Emula- 
tion in horsemanship is indeed pleasurable and use- 
♦ful ; but it is injurious in the moral sense to pur. 
chase any advantage or gratification by the inflic- 
tion of unnecessary misery upon an inferior being- 



THE RED DEER. 301 

The various species of deer, as well as tne ante- 
lopes, remain invariably in their original situation 
when left in a state of nature. Two species are 
common to the north of the old and the new con- 
tinents ; five belong to North America ; four to 
America, south of the equator ; four to Europe 
and the continent of Asia ; and fourteen to India, 
to China, and to the Archipelagoes of the south- 
east of Asia, 

Of the British deer, the only existing species are 
the red deer {Cervus Elaphus), the roe {Cervus 
Capreolus), and the fallow deer {Cervus Dama). 

The red deer is about three and a half feet in 
height ; the female goes with young eight months, 
and produces one at a birth ; the horns are branched, 
round, and recurved. 

The roe is a,bout two and a quarter feet high ; 
the female goes with young five months and a half, 
and produces two at a birth ; the horns are branch- 
ed, round, erect, with bifid summits. 

The fallow deer, the most gentle of the deer 
tribe, is smaller than the red deer ; the female goes 
with young eight months, and produces one or two, 
and sometimes (though rarely) three at a birth. 
The horns are branched, recurved, compressed, 
and palmated at the top. 

The antlers of the deer fall off, and are annually 
renewed. This peculiarity is a most singular 
provision of nature ; and the mode in which the 
process is effected offers many examples of animal 
economy. We transcribe a description of the pro- 
cess from Blumenbach's "Comparative Anatomy:" 

" The annual reproduction of horns constitutes, 
in many points of view, one of the most remarka- 
Co 



302 NATURAL HISTORY. 

ble phenomena of animal physiology. It affords a 
most striking proof, first, of the power of the nu- 
tritive process, and of the rapid growth which re- 
sults from this process in warm-blooded animals ; 
for the horn of a stag, which may weigh a quarter 
of a hundred weight, is completely formed in ten 
weeks ; secondly, of the remarkable power of ab- 
sorption, by which, towards the time of shedding 
the old horn, a complete separation is effected of 
the substance which was before so firmly united 
with the frontal bone ; thirdly, of a limited dura- 
tion of life in a part of an animal entirely inde- 
pendent of the life of the whole animal, which in 
the stag extends to about thirty years ; fourthly, 
of a change of calibre in particular vessels ; for 
the branches of the external carotid, which supply 
the horn, are surprisingly dilated during its growth, 
and recover their former dimensions when that 
process has ceased ; fifthly, of a peculiar sympathy 
which is manifested between the growth of the 
horns and the generative functions." 

The translators of Blumenbach have added the 
following note, in illustration of these curious phys- 
iological facts : 

" The word horn, which is frequently applied in 
English to the antlers of the deer kind, as well as 
to the real horns of other genera, would lead to 
very erroneous notions on this subject. The antler 
is a real bone ; it is formed in the same manner, 
and consists of the same elements, as other bones ; 
its structure is also the same. 

" It adheres to the frontal bone by its basis ; and 
the substance of the two parts being consolidated 
together, no distinction can be traced when the 



THE RED DEER. 303 

antler is completely organized. But the skin of 
the forehead terminates at its basis, which is 
marked by an irregular projecting bony circle ; and 
there is neither skin nor periosteum on the rest of 
it. The time of its remaining on the head is one 
year ; as the period of its fall approaches, a red- 
dish mark of separation is observed between the 
process of the frontal bone and the antler. This 
becomes more and more distinctly marked, until 
the connexion is entirely destroyed. 

" The skin of the forehead extends over the pro- 
cess of the frontal bone when the antler has fallen. 
At the period of its regeneration, a tubercle arises 
from this process, and takes the form of the future 
antler, being still covered by a prolongation of the 
skin. The structure of the part at this time is 
soft and cartilaginous ; it is immediately invested 
by a true periosteum, containing large and numer- 
ous vessels, which penetrate the cartilage in ev- 
ery direction ; and, by the gradual deposition of 
ossific matter, convert it into a perfect bone. 

" The vessels pass through openings in the pro- 
jecting bony circle at the base of the antler : the 
formation of this part proceeding in the same ra- 
tio with that of the rest, these openings are con- 
tracted, and the vessels are thereby pressed, until 
a complete obstruction ensues. The skin and pe- 
riosteum then perish, become dry, and fall off, the 
surface of the antler remaining uncovered. At 
the stated period it falls off, to be again produced, 
always increasing in size. 

" The horns are shed in the spring and repro- 
diuced in summer," 



304 NATURAL HISTORY. 

A remarkable provision of nature, which is pe- 
culiar to deer and antelopes, has been described 
by some naturalists and doubted by others. Mr. 
White, with his usual accuracy of observation, has 
noticed the additional spiracula, which, he says, 
enabled the animal to breathe when drinking, and 
assist him when pursued. 

" If some curious gentleman would procure the 
head of a fallow deer, and have it dissected, he 
would find it furnished with two spiracula, or 
breathing-places, besides the nostrils; probably 
analogous to the puncta lachrymalia in the human 
head. When deer are thirsty, they plunge their 
noses, like some horses, very deep under water 
while in the act of drinking, and continue them in 
that situation for a considerable time ; but, to ob- 
viate any inconvenience, they can open two vents, 
one at the inner corner of each eye, having a com- 
munication with the nose. Here seems to be an 
extraordinary provision of nature worthy our at- 
tention, and which has not, that I know of, been 
noticed by any naturaUst ; for it looks as if these 
creatures would not be suffocated, though both 
their mouths and nostrils were stopped. This cu- 
rious formation of the head may be of singular ser- 
vice to beasts of chase, by affording them free res- 
piration ; and no doubt these additional nostrils are 
thrown open when they are hard run. Mr. Ray 
observed that, at Malta, the owners slit up the nos- 
trils of such asses as were hard worked ; for they 
being naturally straight or small, did not admit 
air sufficient to serve them when they travelled or 
laboured in that hot climate. And we know that 
grooms and gentlemen of the turf think large nos- 



THE DEER. 305 

trils necessary, and a perfection, in hunters and 
running-horses." 

In the heads of deer and antelopes there are cav- 
ities imbedded in a bony case, varying in size in 
different species of these animals. The French 
call them larmiers, believing them receptacles for 
tears, of which the thinner part evaporating, a sub- 
stance remains, called larmes de cerf. To this 
circumstance may be attributed the belief of the 
poets that the deer weeps. Sir Everard Home has 
explained the construction of these larmiers.* 

We have already mentioned the smallness and 
peculiar hardness of the bone of the deer's foot ; it 
is this peculiarity which renders the animal as 
strong as he is fleet. The support and strength of 
Ihe joints of the feet of all animal bodies, according 
to Sir E. Home, depend less upon their own liga- 
nients than upon the action of the muscles whose 
tendons pass over them. He says : " This fact 
was strongly impressed on my mind in the early 
part of my mental education, by seeing a deer 
which leaped over the highest fences, and the joints 
of whose feet, when examined, were as rigid in 
every other direction but that of their motion as 
the bone itself; but when the tendo AchiUis, which 
passed over the joint, was divided, with a view to 
keep the animal from running away, the foot could 
readily be moved in any direction, the joint no lon- 
ger having the smallest firmness. "f 

The stag is sometimes domesticated, and the 
fallow deer very often. The latter may be easily 
induced to live in stables ; and he manifests a sort 

* Comparative Anatomy, vol, iii., p. 245. 
t Ibid., vol. i., p. 9G. 

Cc2 



806 NATURAL HISTORY. 

of affection for the horse. At Newmarket, in 1 828, 
there was a deer which was accustomed regularly 
to exercise with the race-horses ; and the creature 
was delighted to gallop round the course with them 
in their morning training. 

The arrangement of the teeth of the various spe- 
cies of deer and of the antelope tribes is generally 
as follows, though there are constant exceptions : 
Incisors, f , Canine, ^zf , Molar, |if . Total, 32. 



THE REINDEER. " 307 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE REINDEER. 



The Reindeer, Cervus Tarandus, Linn^us. — Cervus Rangifer^ 
Brissot. — Renne, Buffon. 

The actual locality of the reindeer, determined 
as it is by the temperature of the polar climates, 
presents another of the many forcible examples of 
the inseparable connexion of particular animals 
with the wants of human society. The reindeer 
has been domesticated by the Laplanders from the 



308 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



earliest ages ; and has alone rendered the dreary 
region in which this portion of mankind abides at 
all supportable. The civilization of those extreme 
northern regions, which is steadily advancing, en- 
tirely depends upon the reindeer. All communi- 
cation through the interior parts of Lapland is sus- 
pended in summer ; and the inhabitants of Finmark 
travel by land only in the winter season. 

The traveller from Norway or Sweden may pro- 
ceed with ease and safety even beyond the polar 
circle ; but when he enters Finmark he cannot stir 
without the reindeer; and with this faithful ser- 
vant, the Finmark dealer may travel from his na- 
tive wilds, to dispose of his produce in the markets 
of Torneo and Stockholm. The reindeer alone 
connects two extremities of a kingdom ; and with- 
out him, the comforts and the knowledge of civil- 
ized life could never be extended over those coun- 




Laplander in his sledge. 

tries which, during a greater part of the year, are 
cut off from all other communication with the other 
portions of mankind.* 

* See De Brokers Travels in Lapland, p. 75. 



THE REINDEER. 309 

The inhabitants of Lapland are divided into two 
classes ; those who live upon the shore and subsist 
by fishing, and those who wander through the sum- 
mer and winter with no shelter but their tents, and 
no provision but their reindeer. In summer the 
wandering or mountain Laplander is compelled to 
undertake the most arduous journeys to the coast 
for the preservation of his deer. Mr. De Broke 
has described these migrations :* 

" Whale Island, during the summer months, is 
never without three or four families of mountain 
Laplanders (Field-finner), with their herds of rein- 
deer. The causes that induce, nay, even compel 
these people to undertake their long and annual 
migrations from the interior parts of Lapland to its 
coast, though they may appear singular, are suffi- 
ciently powerful. It is well known, from the ac- 
counts of those travellers who have visited Lapland 
during the summer months, that the interior parts 
of it, particularly its boundless forests, are so in- 
fested by various species of gnats and other insects, 
that no animal can escape their incessant persecu- 
tions. Large fires are kindled, in the smoke of 
which the cattle hold their heads, to escape the at- 
tack of their enemies ; and even the natives them- 
selves are compelled to smear their faces with tar, 
as the only certain protection against their stings. 
No creature, however, suffers more than the rein- 
deer from the larger species (oestrus tarandi), as it 
not only torments it incessantly by its sting, but even 
deposites its egg in the wound it makes in its hide. 
The poor animal is thus tormented to such a degree, 
that the Laplander, if he were to remain in the for- 
* Travels in Lapland, p. 31. 



310 NATURAL HISTORY. 

ests during the months of June, July, and August, 
would run the risk of losing the greater part of his 
herd, either by actual sickness, or from the deer 
fleeing of their own accord to mountainous situa- 
tions to escape the gadfly. From these causes 
the Laplander is driven from the forests to the 
mountains that overhang the Norway and Lapland 
coasts, the elevated situations of which, and the 
cool breezes from the ocean, are unfavourable to 
the existence of these troublesome insects, which, 
though found on the coast, are in far less consider- 
able numbers there, and do not quit the valleys ; so 
that the deer, by ascending the highlands, can avoid 
them." 

The wild herds of reindeer ascend the mountains 
in the summer to free themselves from these para- 
sitical insects of the forest ; and the tame deer often 
wander from their masters for the same object. 
These insects, particularly the (Bstrus, so terrify the 
herds, that the appearance of a single one will ren- 
der them furious. Schreber, a celebrated natural- 




Insects which attack the Reindeer, 



ist, has represented these periodical tormentors of 
the poor reindeer. The Laplanders say that one 
of their objects in going to the coast is, that the deer 



THE REINDEER. 311 

may drink the sea-water ; and that he takes one 
draught, which destroys the larvae of the fly, but 
never repeats it. 

According to the accounts of the people of Fin- 
mark, the attacks of these fearful creatures are not 
the only torments of the reindeer. An insect, or, 
rather, worm, the furia inf emails^ originally men- 
tioned by Linnseus, is said to produce the most 
fatal effects upon the herds. Linnaeus, indeed, al- 
tered his opinion late in life as to the existence 
even of this worm ; and the Swedish naturalists 
now treat it as entirely fabulous. Dr. Clarke, how- 
ever, supposes himself to have been wounded by 
this very creature during his travels in Sweden. 
The Laplanders themselves firmly believe in its 
existence ; and its fatal powers, as represented by 
these people, are thus described by De Broke : 

" In 1823, the Laplanders are stated to have suf- 
fered so greatly in their herds, that five thousand 
head died from the sting of this creature ; and that 
even the wolves and other animals that preyed upon 
the dead carcasses caught the infection, and died 
with the same symptoms. A Laplander who pos- 
sessed five hundred deer, on perceiving the destruc- 
tion among them, thought it best to kill the whole 
herd ; but so quickly did its ravages spread, that, 
before he could accomplish his purpose, they all 
died. Great numbers of cattle and sheep were 
likewise destroyed by its attack, and it fell in some 
degree upon the human species, a few having be- 
come victims to it. A young girl, who was shear- 
ing some sheep that had died from the attack of 
the furia^ felt, while thus employed, a sudden pain 
in one of her fingers, which rapidly increased, and, 



312 NATURAL HISTORY. 

on examining the part, she found a small puncture 
like the prick of a needle ; her master, who was 
by, had the presence of mind to cut the finger off 
on the spot, and it was the means of saving her life. 

"The pest is stated to have been confined ta 
Russian and Swedish Lapland, and did not spread 
higher than Muonioniska. Norwegian Lapland, 
fortunately, was not visited with this calamity ; and, 
in order to prevent it from being introduced, all 
furs, during the year of its prevalence, were forbid- 
den to be purchased."* 

It is quite true that, during the summer of 1823^ 
there was an extraordinary mortahty among the 
reindeer of Norway and Lapland ; but the better 
informed people attributed it, not to the furia in-- 
fernalis, but to some unwholesome quality of the 
moss ; and the medical men at Stockholm consid^ 
ered the disease with which the herds had been at- 
tacked as a particular variety of hydrophobia. The 
reindeer are also subject to inflammation of the 
brain ; which probably arises from their great sen- 
sibihty to heat. In the hottest weather, the ther- 
mometer rises, even at the North Cape, as high as 
90° of Fahrenheit. 

The movements of the wandering Laplander are 
determined by those of his deer. As camels con- 
stitute the chief possession of an Arab, so do the 
reindeer compose all the wealth of a Laplander. 
" The number of deer belonging to a herd is from 
three hundred to fiWQ hundred ; with these a Lap- 
lander can do well, and live in tolerable comfort. 
He can make in summer a sufficient quantity of 
cheese for the year's consumption ; and, during the 

* Travels, p. 99. 



THE REINDEER. 313 

winter season, can afford to kill deer enough to sup. 
ply him and his family pretty constantly with ven- 
ison. With two hundred deer, a man, if his family 
be but small, can manage to get on. If he have 
but one hundred, his subsistence is very precarious, 
and he cannot rely entirely upon them for support. 
Should he have but fifty, he is no longer independ- 
ent, or able to keep a separate establishment, but 
generally joins his small herd with that of some 
richer Laplander, being then considered more in 
the light of a menial, undertaking the laborious of- 
fice of attending upon and watching the herd, bring- 
ing them home to be milked, and other similar of- 
fices, in return for the subsistence afforded him."* 
With this stock the Laplander wanders through 
the greatest variety of wild and beautiful scenery ; 
but he is little sensible to tlie impressions which 
such regions produce upon the mind of an intelli- 
gent traveller. The extremes of bodily fatigue and 
want leave little room for the cultivation of the 
mind ; and the love of the subhme and beautiful of 
nature belongs to an advanced stage of the intellect. 
These rich summer scenes of Lapland are wonder- 
fully enlivened by the presence of the wanderer and 
his herds. Von Buch, a celebrated traveller, has 
well described the evening milking-time : 

" It is a new and pleasing spectacle to see in the 
evening the herd assembled round the gamme (en- 
campment) to be milked. On all the hills around, 
everything is in an instant full of life and motion. 
The busy dogs are everywhere barking, and bring- 
ing the mass nearer and nearer, and the reindeer 
bound and run, stand still, and bound again, in an 
* De Broke, p. 45. 



314 NATURAL HISTORY. 

indescribable variety of movements. When the 
feeding animal, frightened by the dog, raises his 
head, and displays aloft his large and proud antlers, 
what a beautiful and majestic sight ! And when 
he courses over the ground, how fleet and light are 
his speed and carriage ! We never hear the foot 
on the earth, and nothing but the incessant crack- 
ling of his knee joints, as if produced by a repetition 
of electric shocks, a singular noise ; and from the 
number of reindeer, by whom it is at once produced, 
it is heard at a great distance. When all the herd, 
consisting of three or four hundred, at last reach 
the gamme, they stand still, or repose themselves, 
or frisk about in confidence, play with their antlers 
against each other, or in groups surround a patch 
of moss browsing. When the maidens run about 
with their milk vessels from deer to deer, the broth- 
er or servant throws a bark halter round the antlers 
of the animal which they point out to him, and 
draws it towards them ; the animal generally strug- 
gles, and is unwilling to follow the halter, and the 
maiden laughs at and enjoys the labour it occasions, 
and sometimes wantonly allows it to get loose, that 
it may be caught again for her ; while the father 
and mother are heard scolding them for their frol- 
icsome behaviour, which has often the effect of 
scaring the whole flock. Who, viewing this scene, 
would not think on Laban, on Leah, Rachel, and 
Jacob ? When the herd at last stretches itself, to 
the number of so many hundreds at once, round 
about the gamme, we imagine we are beholding an 
entire encampment, and the commanding mind 
which presides over the whole stationed in the 
middle." 



THE REINDEER. 



315 



The noise which the traveller describes as " the 
crackling of his knee joints," is produced by the 
contraction of the reindeer's hoofs when the foot 
is raised from the ground. These hoofs are not 
narrow and pointed, like those of the fallow deer, 
which finds its food upon unyielding surfaces ; but 
th-ey are broad and spreading ; and thus, when the 
reindeer crosses the yielding snows, the foot pre- 
sents a large surface, and, like the snow shoe of 
the Norwegians and Canadian Indians, prevents, 
to a certain extent, the animal sinking as deeply as 
it would if the hoof were small and compact. 





Reindeer* s foot contracted. Reindeer* s foot expanded. 



The Laplander's summer lasts from about June 
to September. The herds and their owners depart 
therefore from the coasts early in that month, that 
they may take up their winter quarters before the 
fall of the snows. As the winter approaches, the 
coat of the reindeer begins to thicken in the most 
remarkable manner, and assumes that lighter col- 
our which is the great peculiarity of polar quad- 
rupeds. During the summer the animal pastures 
ypon every green herbage, and browses upon tho 



316 NATURAL HISTORY. 

shrubs which he finds in his march. In the winter, 
his sole food is the lichen or moss, which he in- 
stinctively discovers under the snow. It is a sin- 
gular, and now well-established fact, that the rein- 
deer will eat with avidity the lemming or mountain 
rat, presenting one of the few instances of a rumi- 
nating animal being in the shghtest degree carniv- 
orous. The extraordinary instinct with which the 
reindeer discovers the lichen is well illustrated by 
De Broke : 

" The flatness of the country increased as we 
proceeded, and at times it was even difficult to tell 
whether we were moving on land or water, from the 
uniformity of the white surface around us. In this 
respect our deer were far better judges than our- 
selves, as, though there might be a depth of some 
feet of snow above the ice, wherever we stopped 
for a few minutes upon any lake, in no one in- 
stance did they attempt to commence their usual 
search after their food ; yet, when upon land, their 
natural quickness of smell enabled them to ascer- 
tain, with almost unerring certainty, w^hether there 
was any moss growing beneath them or not. By 
the fineness of this sense of the animal the Lap- 
landers are chiefly guided in fixing their different 
winter-quarters ; never remaining in those parts 
which they know with certainty produce but little 
moss, from the indifference of their deer, and the 
few attempts made by them in removing the snow." 

When the winter is fairly set in, the pecuhar 
value of the reindeer is felt by the Laplanders. 
Without him, as we have already said, communica- 
tion would be almost utterly suspended. Harnessed 
to a sledge, the reindeer will draw about 300 lbs. ; 



A 



THE REINDEER* 317 

but the Laplanders generally limit the burden to 
240 lbs. The trot of the reindeer is about ten 
miles an hour ; and their powers of endurance is 
such, that journeys of one hundred and fifty miles 
in nineteen hours are not uncommon. There is a 
portrait of a reindeer in the palace of Drotningholm 
(Sweden), which is represented, upon an occasion 
of emergency, to have drawn an officer with im- 
portant despatches the incredible distance of eight 
hundred English miles in forty-eight hours.* This 
event is stated to have happened in 1699, and the 
tradition adds that the deer dropped down lifeless 
upon his arrival. Pictet, a French astronomer, 
who visited the northern parts of Lapland in 1769, 
for the purpose of observing the transit of Venus, 
was anxious to know the speed of the reindeer ; 
and therefore started three reindeer in light sledg- 
es for a certain short distance, which he accurate- 
ly measured. The following was the result : 

" The first deer performed 3089 feet, 8 inches, 
and yYo i" ^^^ minutes, being at the rate of near- 
ly 19 English miles in an hour, and thus accom- 
plishing 25 feet, 8 inches, and y^o i" every second, 

" The second did the same in three minutes ; 
and the third and last deer, in three minutes and 
twenty-six seconds. The ground in this race was 
nearly level." 

The reindeer requires considerable training to 
prepare him for sledge-travelling ; and he always 
demands an experienced driver. If the animal is 
not well broken-in, he is unmanageable ; and if the 
driver is inexpert, the deer has sagacity enough to 
turn round and rid himself of him by the most fu- 
rious assaults. Mr. de Broke several times felt the 
* De Broke's Winter in Lapland. 

Dd3 



SI 8 NATURAL HISTORY. 

inconvenience of ill-trained deer in his winter 
journey across Lapland. 

" The deer we had procured were as unmanage- 
able and unruly as deer could well be, being none 
of them well broken-in ; and our first set off was 
by no means a pleasant one, as, after tumbling with 
the quickness of lightning down the steep bank of 
the river, the deer proceeded at full gallop across 
a very rough and broken country, with steep and 
slippery descents. It was quite impossible, from 
the nature of the ground, to prevent being fre- 
quently rolled over in the pulk (sledge) ; and, when 
this was the case, the strength and freshness of the 
deer, and the good order of the snow, which was 
very hard, made them regard very little the addi- 
tional weight caused by the prostrate position of 
the sledge ; so that they continued to follow, at full 
speed, the rest of the deer, leaving the unfortunate 
wight at their heels to find his balance as well as 
he could.* Notwithstanding that which had been 
harnessed to my pulk was by no means a lamb in 
quiteness, I had good reason to congratulate myself 
upon having escaped the animal which one of the 
party had to his share, and which was a deer of the 
wild breed, that had been caught when young by 
the Laplanders. In size it was larger than the 
others, thinner, with more appearance of bone, and 
considerably stronger. With respect to any com- 
mand over it, this was quite out of the question ; 
and it dragged pulk and driver along with the 
greatest ease wherever it pleased." 

And yet these instances of resistance to their 
drivers are only exceptions to the general character 
* The person drawn is strapped to the pulk. 



THE REINDEER. 319 

of the reindeer. He is ordinarily so docile that he 
scarcely needs any direction, and so persevering 
that he toils on, hour after hour, without any re- 
freshment except a mouthful of snow, which he 
hastily snatches. " We again resumed our course, 
the deer appearing no way fatigued, and proceed- 
ing so steadily and quietly that the act of driving 
them was merely holding the rein, which at last 
became so tedious that some of the party behind 
lashed their deer to the sledge before, the whole 
keeping up a long steady trot. This is the usual 
travelling pace of the reindeer when performing 
long journeys ; for though, occasionally, the animal 
may proceed at a gallop for some miles on first 
starting, or in those situations where the snow is 
very good, it is natural to suppose it will gradually 
relax its pace. The speed of the party, however, 
is entirely dependant upon the foremost deer, by 
which the motions of those behind are almost en- 
tirely regulated ; and I observed that, when we 
first set off in the morning, the instant it had its 
head at liberty, it almost invariably commenced a 
full gallop, the rest all following at a similar pace, 
as if moved by one common impulse. This was 
kept up by them as long as they remained unex- 
hausted, the driver having little power to stop the 
animal, from the rein being merely attached in the 
manner it is to the head. The eagerness of the 
deer to set off is frequently followed by ludicrous 
scenes, the driver being often placed in an awkward 
situation if he be inattentive, and do not happen to 
have the rein in his hand at the moment."* 

The obstinacy which the reindeer sometimes dis- 
* De Broke, p. 508. 



320 NATURAL HISTORY. 

plays is the preservation of his driver. The great 
difficulty is to separate him from his companions, 
or to prevent him joining the herds which he sees 
upon his track. When travelling, if the distance be^ 
tween the foremost and hindmost deer be great, 
and the guide make a turn to the right or left, in- 
stead of cutting across to save distance, the whole of 
the deer in the rear continue on to the spot where 
the turn was made. This gregarious disposition is 
given him for his protection against the danger of a 
solitary state, and the Laplander avails himself of it 
when he loses his road, or is separated from those 
with whom he travels. 

The mode of hunting the wild reindeer by the 
Laplanders, the Esquimaux, and the Indians of 
North America, have been accurately described by 
various travellers. We select the following ac- 
counts from the interesting narratives of Captain 
Lyon and Captain Franklin. Captain Lyon says : 

" The reindeer visits the polar regions at the lat- 
ter end of May or the early part of June, and re- 
mains until late in September. On his first arrival 
he is thin, and his flesh is tasteless ; but the short 
summer is sufficient to fatten him two or three 
inches on the haunches. When feeding on the 
level ground, an Esquimaux makes no attempt to 
approach him ; but, should a few rocks be near, the 
wary hunter feels secure of his prey. Behind one 
of these he cautiously creeps, and, having laid him- 
self very close, he, with his bow and arrow before 
him, imitates the bellow of the deer w^hen calling 
to each other. Sometimes, for more complete de- 
ception, the hunter wears his deerskin coqit and 
hood so drawn over his head as to resemble, in a 



THE REINDEER. 321 

great measure, the unsuspecting animals he is en- 
ticing. Though the bellow proves a considerable 
attraction, yet, if a man has great patience, he may 
do without it, and may be equally certain that his 
prey will ultimately come to examine him ; the 
reindeer being an inquisitive animal, and, at the 
same time, so silly, that, if he sees any suspicious 
object which is not actually chasing him, he will 
gradually, and after many caperings, and forming 
repeated circles, approach nearer and nearer to it. 
The Esquimaux rarely shoot until the creature is 
within twelve paces, and I have frequently been 
told of their being killed at a much shorter distance. 
It is to be observed, that the hunters never appear 
openly, but employ stratagem for their purpose , 
thus, by patience and ingenuity, rendering their 
rudely-formed bows and still worse arrows as ef- 
fective as the rifles of Europeans. When two 
men hunt in company, they sometimes purposely 
show themselves to the deer ; and when his atten- 
tion is fully engaged, walk slowly away from him, 
one before the other. The deer follows ; and, when 
the hunters arrive near a stone, the foremost drops 
behind it and prepares his bow, while his compan- 
ion continues walking steadily forward. This lat- 
ter the deer still follows unsuspectingly, and thus 
passes near the concealed man, who takes a delib- 
erate aim and kills the animal. When the deer 
assemble in herds, there are particular passes which 
they invariably take, and, on being driven to them, 
are killed by arrows by the men, while the women 
with shouts drive them to the water. Here they 
swim with the ease and activity of water-dogs, the 
people in kayaks chasing and easily spearing them ; 



322 NATURAL HISTORY. 

the carcasses float, and the hunter then presses for- 
ward and kills as many as he finds in his track. 
No springs or traps are used in the capture of these 
animals, as is practised to the southward, in conse- 
quence of the total absence of standing wood."* 

Captain Franklin describes the mode in which 
the Dog-rib Indians kill the reindeer, which he had 
from Mr. Wentzel, who resided long among that 
people : 

" The hunters go in pairs, the foremost man car- 
rying in one hand the horns and part of the skin of 
the head of a deer, and in the other a small bundle 
of twigs, against which he from time to time rubs 
the horns, imitating the gestures pecuHar to the 
animal. His comrade follows, treading exactly in 
his footsteps, and holding the guns of both in a hor- 
izontal position, so that the muzzles project under 
the arms of him who carries the head. Both hunt- 
ers have a fillet of white skin round their foreheads, 
and the foremost has a strip of the same round his 
wrists. They approach the herd by degrees, rais- 
ing their legs very slowly, but setting them down 
somewhat suddenly after the m8!:;iier of a deer, 
and always taking care to lift their right or left feet 
simultaneously. If any of the herd leave off feed- 
ing to gaze upon this extraordinary phenomenon, 
it instantly stops, and the head begins to play its 
part by licking its shoulders, and performing other 
necessary movements. In this way the hunters 
attain the very centre of the herd without exciting 
suspicion, and have leisure to single out the fattest. 
The hindmost man then pushes forward his com- 
rade's gun, the head is dropped, and they both firs 
* Private Journal. 



tHE REINDEER. 323 

nearly at the same instant. The deer scamper off, 
the hunters trot after them ; in a short time the 
poor animals halt, to ascertain the cause of their 
terror ; their foes stop at the same moment, and, 
having loaded as they ran, greet the gazers with a 
second fatal discharge. The consternation of the 
deer increases ; they run to and fro in the utmost 
confusion ; and sometimes a great part of the herd 
is destroyed within the space of a few hundred 
yards." 

In a country which affords such an uncertain 
supply of food, and whose climate is so severe 
through a great part of the year as Lapland, the 
progress of civilization can never be very consid- 
erable. The people must, of necessity, lead a wan- 
dering life, uniting the hunting and the pastoral 
character ; but incapable, from physical causes, of 
pursuing the arts of agriculture, or entering largely 
into the communications of commerce. But what 
civiHzation exists or may exist among them, is 
wholly to be ascribed to their best possession, the 
reindeer. It is not, therefore, incompatible with 
the great arrangements by which the universe has 
been created and is supported, to believe that the 
reindeer has been specially bestowed upon the in- 
habitants of the polar regions as an improvement 
of their necessary lot, in the same way that the 
locality of the camel has been fixed in the sandy 
and stony deserts of Asia and Africa. The poor 
Laplander knows the value of the faithful creature 
which affords him food, clothing, and the means of 
transport ; and he offers his homage of thanksgiving 
to the Great Author of nature, who has given him 



324 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



this companion of his wanderings. Whether the 
native of the polar regions hunt the wild deer amid 
the icy mountains, be hurried by his aid across the 
frozen wastes, or wander with his family and his 
herds till the long winter begins, almost without 
any gradation, to succeed the short summer, the 
lives of the Laplander and of the reindeer are in- 
separably united. 




Lapland Family returning from the Coast. 



THE END. 



it 



\ 



i 



HGBESS 




^:i^ 



